Pumpkin Brioche Biscocho

 Philippine-style biscocho is a super crunchy twice-baked yeast bread. There are 2 kinds of Filipino biscocho, the plain ones and the sugared variety which I prefer specially with thick chocolate drink or with coffee. I made sweet biscocho 5 years ago with regular white bread. This time I used pumpkin brioche shaped into loaf and they came out really really really good.

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Pişmaniye - Turkish Candy Floss

I love our Korean grocery store. It stocks sweets and treats from various countries, not just from Asia. The store has lots of items from Greece, North Africa, Middle East, North Africa, and lots of yummy stuff from Turkey. Yesterday, I picked up a packet of Turkish candy floss or cotton candy called pişmaniye which I read about many years ago. The one I got has ground pistachio. The cotton candy is sooo good, very light and not as sweet as ordinary candy floss. Today I made simple milk pudding served with a little pişmaniye on top. Delicious! You just have to try it.

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Celery Root, Parsnip, and Potato Gratin

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Carne de Ternera en Adobo

One of the recipes in the Filipino cookbook THE ADOBO BOOK is written in Spanish, there is no English nor Tagalog translation. The recipe was shared by the late Señor Adi Got who said "This is a Basque recipe from the land of San Sebastian, where the males double as cooks and pelotaris."  From the author's notes:

This family was one of several prestigious families who were members of the Tabacalera estate that established a Spanish community in chosen regions in the Philippines. 

This was a personal recipe of the late foodie Señor Adi Got. He refused to translate it from Spanish insisting that part of the flavor of the dish was in the language. In some way, it connected the Filipino adobo to the Spanish counterpart...interfaced culinary origins...sort of...

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Cranberry Walnut Bread

Watching a local TV show about food and restaurants around the D.C. area, I got hungry and salivated for the crusty cranberry walnut bread the host sank her teeth into. Washington D.C., although near where I live, is still way too far to drive for a loaf of bread. I haven't checked out our local bakeries either because I have been a bit under the weather and haven't been out of the house for almost a week. It's just a simple cold so baking it myself wasn't too taxing, and the only choice for me.

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Candied Breadfruit

Last week I had a somewhat strange experience at the Korean grocery store. I just picked up a large portion of winter melon (KUNDOL in the Philippines) which I was going to candy for Italian and Spanish nougat. Whenever I plan to make the kundol sweets, candied breadfruit, RIMAS in Tagalog, always comes to mind. I was silently wishing I would also find fresh breadfruit, and then to my utter surprise, right in front of me was a large bin full of breadfruit. I've never seen a fresh breadfruit before in my life and the only reason I knew was because there was a large sign that said BREADFRUIT. I've only known it in its candied triangular shape glazed with dried sugar syrup similar to marrons glacés. I remember its flavor and texture also somewhat resemble the candied chestnuts.

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Cranberry Pear Gelatin Mold

Every year for Thanksgiving I make spiced cranberry sauce to go with turkey. This time I wanted to try something different without the usual spices and found a recipe for Jello molded salad. I like it and I'll probably make both sauce and gelatin mold for this year's Thanksgiving Day dinner. 

The original recipe uses bottled cranberry juice. I made my own sweetened juice with fresh cranberries, sugar, mandarin orange peels, and a chopped teeny tiny Seckel pear.  

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