January 11, 2007

Piaya

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After several failed attempts, a lot of wasted flour and shortening, and a very messy kitchen counter, I was finally able to make piaya, the ingredients and procedure I got from inq7.net December 2005 archive, which I discovered is already gone from their site. The piaya is flaky but I could not replicate the paper thinness of the store bought. They also did not puff up because they were thicker than they should be. Nevertheless I am very happy with them and ate 2 pieces, yummy.

This is exactly what was in the inq7 article:

Piaya
½ kilo flour
½ C vegetable shortening
½ kilo muscovado sugar

Mix flour and shortening, cut into 10-gm portions, flatten/press into rounds, put 10 gms muscovado, form into balls, flatten balls and bake.


Update: add a few tablespoons of water to the dough to make it more pliable.

January 10, 2007

Fideuá

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My daughter has been into thin spaghetti recently, eating them with everything but tomato sauce. She has eaten them seasoned with just butter, salt and parsley and then with mesquite chicken patties, then she eyed the morcon and its rich sauce and started eating them with the spaghetti. Since then she has paired the pasta with honey ham, hotdogs, chili, chicken inasal (grilled), and corned beef hash. When she is in the mood for something, that's all she eats until she gets sick of it. One time she had PBJ sandwich for lunch everyday for almost 2 weeks! Weird. So I decided to give in and made the Spanish seafood fideuá using angel hair pasta. I was going to make paella but changed my mind because I also want to try this paella-like dish anyway.


Fideua
½ pound Manila clams
1 tablespoon coarse sea salt
5 cups water
1 pound mussels, scrubbed and debearded
½ pound medium shrimps, peeled and halved lenghtwise, shells reserved
½ pound monkfish with bones, cut into chunks, reserve the bones
pinch of saffron threads
sea salt
½ cup olive oil
½ lb angel hair pasta, broken into 2-inch lengths
1 clove garlic, minced
1 each small green and red peppers, seeded and cut into narrow strips
½ poundb small squid, cleaned and sliced into rings
1 lemon cut into 4 wedges
  • Scrub the clams under cold water. In a large bowl, combine the clams, coarse salt and water to cover and let stand for 30 minutes or up to 2 hours for them to release any sand trapped in their shells
  • .In a stockpot. bring the 5 cups of water to a boil, add the mussels, cover and cook for 5 minutes. Using a slotted spoon remove the mussels, set aside to cool. Add the shrimp shells and monkfish bones to the stockpot and simmer for 15 minutes. When the mussels are cool enough, remove the meats and discard the shells and any that failed to open. Set the meats aside.
  • When the broth is ready, strain through a fine mesh placed over a bowl. Measure 3 - 4 cups, add the saffron and 1 ½ teaspoons salt, set aside.
  • Preheat oven to 450°F.
  • In a 15 inch pan or paella pan, heat the olive oil, add the pasta, stirring often, for 3 minutes or until golden brown. Using a slotted spoon, remove the pasta and set aside. Remove all but 2 tablespoons oil. Add the garlic and peppers in the pan and stir fry until tender. Add the shrimps, fish and squid, saute for 3 minutes. Add the 3 cups reserved broth and bring to the boil. Distribute the fried pasta evenly in the pan. Drain the clams and place the clams and shelled mussels on top of the pasta. Cook on high heat for 3 minutes. Add more broth if too dry. Transfer the pan to the oven and cook for 10 minutes. The liquid will be absorbed, the pasta will be tender and the clams will have opened. Remove from oven, discard unopened clams and serve with lemon wedges on the side.

This recipe is adapted from The Cuisines of Spain by Teresa Barrenechea. The dish is very very good and will appeal to seafood lovers. The amount of broth that she suggests (4 cups) is too much for the ½ pound of pasta. Add 3 cups first, then add more if the dish appears dry, before transferring to the oven.


January 8, 2007

Time for Something Green

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For the past 2 or 3 weeks now we have been eating mostly meat and only a few vegetables so it's about time I prepare something green and therefore healthier. I first tasted this dish at a Chinese restaurant called Mama Wok. They serve the best and most authentic Chinese food in my area, in my honest opinion. I have made this a few times already, it is very simple with only 5 ingredients and really delicious.

Edamame with Tofu Skin
1 pound frozen shelled edamame
3 dried soybean sheets
light olive oil
3 cups shredded napa cabbage or any green leafy vegetable
4 spring onions, sliced into ½ inch pieces
1 tablespoon vegetable bouillon
water
2 teaspoons cornstarch
sea salt to taste
  • Tear tofu sheets into medium size pieces and soften for 5 minutes in 2 cups water mixed with 1 teaspoon baking soda. Boil edamame for 3 minutes, drain and set aside. In a wok or saute pan, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil and stir fry spring onions for 2 minutes, add the napa cabbage, cook for 2 minutes. Drain the tofu and rinse, drain thoroughly. Add to the pan together with the bouillon and 2 cups water, simmer for 5 minutes, then add the edamame, let boil again then thicken with cornstarch mixed with 2 tablespoons water. Cook for another minute until sauce has thickened. Adjust seasoning with salt.

January 5, 2007

Machang

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I know this is not authentic machang, I don't know its ingredients nor how to cook them. All I remember is it is pyramidal in shape, a little bit sweetish and brown in color. One online site describes them as glutinous rice with mushrooms, pork fat and chestnuts seasoned with soy sauce, sugar and sesame seed oil, wrapped in banana leaves, tied with strings at the top and submerged in boiling water and cooked for 30 minutes. I made a batch yesterday according to that description and was not satisfied with the result. The rice is a bit soggy, the seasoning was not thoroughly absorbed by the rice and maybe was washed away by the boiling method. The photo is on the right. The thing is, the machang was still good, regardless. So I searched in all my Chinese cookbooks for something similar, found one in Martin Yan's cookbook. His recipe has too many ingredients and the rice bundles are wrapped in lotus leaves. Since I prefer the essence of banana leaves and the simplicity of our machang, I adapted Martin Yan's method with the ingredients I used yesterday and the result is very very good.

Filipino Chinese-Style Rice Bundles
2 cups Japanese rice
¼ cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons sesame seed oil
4 Chinese sausages, sliced
12 dried mushrooms, softened in warm water and julienned
1 100gm packet roasted chestnuts, broken into chunks
1 small can diced water chestnuts
banana leaves cut into 3 x 7 inch pieces
  • Wash rice well, drain and set aside for 30 minutes, add 2 cups water and boil/steam for 25 to 30 minutes. In a large wok, fry the sausages until brown, drain well, remove the rendered fat and return to the wok, add all the ingredients, cook for 1 minute, then add the cooked rice, separating the grains and making sure the meat, mushrooms, chestnuts and the seasoning are evenly distributed. Spoon rice in a small cup, tamp a little bit. Put 2 pieces of banana leaves on a large platter, lay one across the other, invert the cup on the middle and tap until the rice comes out in one piece. Enclose the rice with the first piece of banana leaf then pull the second towards the middle, gather and pinch, tie with twine or thin strips of banana leaf, making sure the rice is not visible and completely covered. Steam in rapidly boiling water for 30 minutes.
An updated and better recipe is here.




 
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