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.

Bicho-Bicho & Goldilocks Bakeshop®-style & Spanish Ensaimada Recipes

I received several email asking for the recipe for the Filipino donuts, bicho-bicho, which I wrote about when I reviewed Michael Chabon's new novel.
This recipe is quite large and may be halved. I prefer eating these donuts simply rolled in white sugar. They have to be consumed right after frying, which I think won't be a problem because they are very good.

Bicho-bicho

1. Put in a mixing bowl:

1 cup lukewarm water

1 tablespoon active dry yeast

1 teaspoon salt

2 cups bread flour

2. Beat thoroughly. Cover and let rise for ½ hour. Add:
¼ cup melted butter or grape seed oil
1 cup light brown sugar
2 well beaten eggs
1½ cups bread flour

3. Beat well. Cover and let rise again until dough is light, about 1 hour. Punch down.

4. Add more flour if dough is too soft to handle. Turn out into a well-floured surface. Divide the dough into 2 parts. Cover each and let rest for 10 minutes.

5. Roll dough to ½-inch thickness and cut into 6 x 1-inch strips. Set on baking sheets, cover and let rise for 1 hour.

6. Fry in hot oil until golden brown, roll in granulated sugar. Enjoy!

There were also a lot of readers who emailed me for the Goldilocks Bakeshop ensaimada which unfortunately I don't have. I don't think anybody, except for the people who work in that bakeshop, has the exact recipe. I have one from my cookbook FAVORITE FILIPINO RECIPES by Pat Limjuco Dayrit which comes closest to the Goldilocks Bakeshop ensaimada in taste and texture. It takes the whole day to make, though.

Ensaimada
½ cup lukewarm water
1 teaspoon sugar
1 level teaspoon dry yeast
1 cup flour
6 egg yolks
9 tablespoons sugar
6 tablespoons butter, softened
2 cups bread flour
extra butter, softened
1 cup grated cheese, preferably queso de bola
sugar

1. Put lukewarm water in a stand mixer bowl. Add sugar and yeast. Let stand for 10 minutes.
2. Add flour and mix with a wooden spoon.
3. Cover with a damp towel and let rise in a warm place for 40 minutes to 1 hour or until double in bulk.
4. Add egg yolks, sugar and butter to flour mixture. Add to this the 2 cups of flour and knead with dough hook attachment.
5. Cover and let rise again in warm place for 3 hours.
6. Divide dough in 12 portions. Roll each portion to ¼-inch thick. Spread butter and sprinkle with grated cheese.
7. Roll up, starting from one end and twist like a knot.
8. Place into an ensaimada mould or large muffin pan lined with parchment then greased.
9. Keep in a warm place to rise for 4 hours.
10. Bake in a preheated 350°F oven for 10 - 12 minutes.
11. Brush with butter and sprinkle with sugar and grated cheese.

Ensaimada (Spanish)
And for Spanish nationals who live outside Spain and would like to make ensaimada, here is the recipe adapted from THE CUISINES OF SPAIN by Teresa Barrenechea. This one doesn't have a single pat of butter, it uses lard and she explains that in Majorcan saim means lard. I have made this ensaimada and I think this is the best recipe.

Makes three 8-inch diameter coils
4½ teaspoons yeast
2/3 cups whole milk, heated to lukewarm
3½ cups flour, sifted
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cups sugar
2 eggs
6 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for oiling rolling pin, work surface, and baking sheets
½ cup melted and cooled lard
½ cup confectioner's sugar

• In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in 1/3 cup of the warm milk and let stand for 5 minutes. 
• In a large bowl, stir together the flour, salt and sugar. Make a well in the center and add the remaining milk, eggs, olive oil, and the yeast mixture into the well. Using a spoon, gradually pull the mixture into the well, stirring as you do. When a uniform dough has formed, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and no longer sticky; if dough is too sticky work in a little more flour. Gather the dough into a ball, cover with a kitchen towel and let rise at room temperature for 1 hour.
• Divide the dough into 3 equal portions. Oil a work surface, a rolling pin and 1 or 2 baking sheets. Roll out 1 portion into a 10 x 6-inch rectangle. Brush with lard and fold in half lengthwise. Brush with melted lard and fold again in half lengthwise. Roll again into a 10 x 6-inch rectangle and starting from the long side, roll up into a tight 10-inch cylinder. Shape it into a snail-like coil. Repeat with the 2 remaining dough portions.Place the coils on the oiled sheets, cover with kitchen towel and let rest in a warm spot overnight.
• Preheat the oven to 350°F. Bake the coils for 30 minutes, or until they are airy and golden and springs back when pressed with a fingertip.
• Remove from oven and let cool on wire racks. Dust with confectioner's sugar and cut into segments just before serving.

Pistachio Nougat & Lemon-Buttermilk Sorbet

I made nougat/turron last year and recently found a recipe using pistachio. The light green color caught my eye and since I love both turron and pistachio I just have to make it. It is very chewy and bad for the teeth but so delicious, so who cares?:D

Pistachio Nougat/Turron
2 cups sugar
1½ cups light corn syrup
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ cup water
2 egg whites
½ teaspoon pistachio flavor oil
green food coloring
4 tablespoons butter
1½ cups toasted pistachio

• Prepare an 8 x 8 inch pan by covering it with non-stick aluminum foil or potato starch wafer both at the bottom and on top.
• Combine the sugar, corn syrup, salt, and water in a large saucepan over medium high heat. Stir until sugar is dissolved and continue to cook until mixture reaches hard-ball stage, 250°F.
• While mixture is cooking, place egg whites in large bowl of stand mixer and whisk until they hold stiff peaks. When sugar syrup has reached 250 degrees, remove from heat and slowly pour one quarter of the mixture into the stiff egg whites, with the mixer running constantly. Continue beating until the egg whites hold its shape.
• Return the saucepan with the remaining syrup to the stove and continue to cook over medium high heat until the mixture reaches 300 degrees, or hard-crack stage.With the mixer running, pour the remaining sugar syrup slowly into the egg mixture and continue beating until mixture is thick and stiff.
• Add the flavoring and a few drops of food coloring gel or paste to tint the nougat a delicate green. Add the softened butter and beat until the candy is very thick and satiny. Add the nuts last and stir until combined.
• Spoon the nougat into the prepared pan and press it smooth and evenly. Allow to set to room temperature and cut into small squares to serve.

I also made Lemon-Buttermilk Sorbet (from David Lebovitz's THE PERFECT SCOOP) before the buttermilk from the butter I made spoils. It is so light, yummy, and very refreshing, the tangy lemon and tangy buttermilk are perfect for each other. This flavor is excellent with ginger thins.

Lemon-Buttermilk Sorbet
1/3 cup water
2/3 cup sugar
1 lemon
2 cups buttermilk
¼ cup lemon juice

• In a medium stainless steel sauce pan, mix the sugar and water. Grate the zest of the lemon directly into the saucepan. Heat, stirring frequently, until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat and let stand until the syrup reaches room temperature, then chill thoroughly in the refrigerator. Whisk the buttermilk into the syrup, then whisk in the lemon juice. Freeze in your ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions.

According to David Lebovitz, you can make ice cream without an ice cream maker. He suggests you freeze the mixture and stir with a mixer every 30 minutes until the ice cream is smooth. You can read his tips in making the perfect scoop of ice cream with or without ice cream maker here.

lemon buttermilk sorbet and ginger thins sandwich

Maryland/Virginia Blue & Alaska King Crabs

crab cakes and relleno


blue crabs in coconut milk and hot red pepper sauce

Two of my favorite Filipino bloggers recently featured crabs in their posts. It was sheer torture reading their posts, my only consolation is at that at least I know what they taste like ;D. I have eaten A LOT of the sweet curacha with coconut sauce and of course steamed alimango (mud crab). What we have here is the Maryland/Virginia blue crab which is a cousin, I think, of our alimasag, also called blue crab in the Philippines. My mother rarely bought blue crabs, she said they are not as meaty and tasty as the mud crabs. I myself don't buy crabs in their shells because only my daughter and I have the patience to eat them. I buy the canned lump crab meat from Indonesia, Thailand, or the Philippines and make crab cakes to eat with rice and as crab sandwich, or plain with vinegar and chile dipping sauce.

I bought a few blue crabs and prepared some with coconut and chile sauce, crab cakes and crab relleno. I also bought a few Alaska king crab legs which I have not tried before because they look freakingly ugly with their ipis (cockroach)-like spiky legs, they scare me. I steamed them and ate them with garlic infused butter and lemon juice. I did not like them at all, maybe because they were previoulsy frozen and did not taste fresh. Eh, nothing can equal alimango and curacha, period!:D

blue crabs

scary looking Alaska king crab legs

Speaking of crabs, I had a strange but funny encounter with them. Many many years ago I used to work as a domestic flight attendant and being one of the newbies I was stationed at Cebu. We fly to the Mindanao region, stay overnight in Zamboanga City once every 2 weeks, where I had those curachas. We also go to Cotabato City where I ate the biggest and tastiest mud crabs. I had a regular passenger whose family had crab and catfish farms in Cotabato City. One night after I got off the plane and was ready to board the company van to take us home, the driver informed me I had a tall can filled with live catfish in water and a dozen crabs tied together with palm fronds that the aforementioned passenger left for me as a gift. How he knew it was my off day the next day I never found out. It was very late, the housemaid was already in bed, and I did not know what to do with the fish and crabs. My friends and I left them on the kitchen table and went to bed. Early next morning the maid was laughing and making all sorts of racket, woke us up to tell us some of the crabs had "escaped". Two lazy or perhaps clueless crabs were still on the kitchen table, some were halfway through the living room floor and some were crawling through the weird perfectly round holes on the living room concrete walls. The holes were decorative or part of the design, which is the oddest thing. When we rented the house we were just concerned with the bedrooms and baths, we didn't care about the living room and kitchen because we were never there. We ate at hotels and restaurants, we never had a meal in that house, we never cooked. So we didn't mind those holes, they were not big enough even for a child to get through and we also never thought of criminal elements at the time. So we caught maybe 4 of the crabs trying to crawl out of the holes and 4 on the floor, unlucky bastards. I never got to eat either the crabs or the catfish (I didn't eat catfish then) because my friends and I already had planned to go out that day, then went to work the next day. The maid and the 3 pilots who shared the house with us told me they were fantastic!

Crab Cakes
1 pound lump crab meat
1 cup finely diced potato, optional
4 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 medium onion, finely minced
2 tomatoes, seeded and chopped
¼ cup parsley, finely minced
1 teaspoon salt or to taste
2 eggs, beaten
olive or grapeseed oil

• In a small skillet, fry the potatoes until light brown, set aside. In another skillet, heat 1 T oil and saute the garlic and onion for 3 minutes. Add the tomatoes and cook for 2 minutes. Add the cooked potatoes, salt and parsley and stir for 1 minute. In a bowl, mix the crab and potato mixture, add the eggs, mixing gently. Form into patties or fill crab shells. Heat oil in a large skillet and fry crab cakes or crab rellenos 2 minutes on each side or until golden brown.

Ensaimada

I have always wanted to make the Hizon style ensaimada which resembles the original Spanish ensaimada, i.e. flat and whitish inside, not the fluffy yellow almost cake-like Goldilocks ensaimada. The Hizon ensaimada I remember was golden brown and flattened further with a hot iron or maybe spatula to caramelize the sugar topping. It was delicious, bready, sweet and perfect with hot chocolate.

In one of my Spanish cookbooks the recipe for ensaimada is leavened with baking powder and has lard, not butter. It is shaped into one gigantic coil and left to rise for 7 hours before baking. I will try that recipe next time I make ensaimadas.

Today I used a Spanish recipe I found online. I was able to make two 7-inch ensaimadas using half of the dough and the other half I made into a coffee cake loaf filled with Nutella and hazelnuts.

Update: Goldilocks-style and Spanish Majorcan recipes here

topped with butter, sugar, and grated young gouda

Nutella and hazelnuts coffee cake loaf

Here is the ensaimada recipe that uses baking powder and lard:
5 cups flour
¾ cup sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup warm water
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup lard

• Combine flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, eggs and water. Knead to form a smooth dough. Roll dough and spread the lard. Roll and fold several times until the lard is absorbed. Halve the dough (or use one dough recipe but it will be HUGE) and roll each dough as thin as possible. Roll the dough from one side like a poster. Coil the rolled dough loosely on 2 large baking sheets, cover with damp towel or plastic wrap and leave to rise for 5 - 7 hours. Bake in a preheated 300°F oven until golden brown. Dust with powdered sugar before slicing.

Who's Cool

I watched yet another Tadanobu Asano movie (Café Lumière) and I just realized how cool this guy is. He can stand there not saying or doing anything yet I am drawn to him, no matter how small the role or screen time. I have seen maybe a dozen of his movies and I liked him in all of them. Having seen hundreds of movies, I made a list of movie celebrities that I think are so cool, along with one or two of their best movies, IMHO.

The coolest guys in cinema


Humphrey Bogart - The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, Sabrina











Tadanobu Asano - Gojoe, Last Life In The Universe











Steve McQueen - Bullitt, The Thomas Crown Affair











Jonathan Rhys Meyers - Gormenghast, Velvet Goldmine











Alain Delon - Le Samourai, L'eclisse











My All-time Favorite Movie Performers

• Jimmy Stewart
• Humphrey Bogart
• Cary Grant
• Steve McQueen
  
• Katharine Hepburn
• Audrey Hepburn
• Jake Gyllenhaal
• Adrien Brody
• Johnny Depp
  
• Brad Pitt
  
• Ben Stiller
• Maggie Gyllenhaal
• Toshiro Mifune
• Tadanobu Asano
  
• Takeshi Kitano (Beat Takeshi)
  
• Jet Li
• Jackie Chan
• Takeshi Kaneshiro
  
• Tony Leung
  
• Maggie Cheung
• Vincent Cassel
• Jean Reno
• Alain Delon
  
• Audrey Tautou
• Colin Firth
• Jonathan Rhys Meyers
• Christian Bale
  
• Gary Oldman
• David Bowie
• Rachel Weisz
  

Empanadas

Empanada jumpstarted my blog a little over a year ago because, strangely, not one of the Filipino cookbooks I own at the time has the recipe for the Filipino empanada, although my Spanish cookbooks have. I searched online for the recipe and found a few sites that mention empanada but not the recipe, one of them is the very funny filipeanut which I have been visiting regularly since. I finally found one site called English Patis and made my first empanada following her recipe. I also found in her blog a list of Filipino bloggers, some I still read at least once or twice a week. I got inspired to start my own blog by one of those Filipino bloggers, which btw I don't visit anymore as often as I used to.

Empanada
pie crust
2½ cups pastry flour
1 stick very cold salted butter, cut into small cubes
1 stick salted butter, sliced very thin or flattened to 7 x 6 inch rectangle (should be very cold)
½ teaspoon sea salt
½ cup ice water

• In a medium bowl, mix salt with flour. With fingers, mix in the cubed butter until crumbly, add water 1 tablespoon at a time. Lightly mix with a fork and form into a ball. Flatten slightly, wrap in plastic film, put in a gallon zipper bag and refrigerate overnight.
• The next day, roll the pastry into a 10 x 8 rectangle, put the flattened butter on the top 2/3, fold the bottom without butter over, then fold again like a letter. Roll and fold, wrap in plastic film and let rest for 1 hour in the refrigerator. Repeat 2 more times before using. You can eliminate the folding and incorporate all the butter at once but the empanada won't be as flaky. Roll into desired thickness and cut into rounds, fill, pinch edges and crimp, brush with egg wash, then bake in a pre-heated 425°F oven until golden brown.

filling
2 tablespoons grapeseed or olive oil
5 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 cup each potato and carrots, finely diced
2 pounds lean ground beef
1 finely chopped chorizo, optional
1 cup raisins
1 cup canned sweet peas
2 teaspoons sea salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon soy sauce
water

• In a skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil and fry potatoes and carrots for 4 minutes, set aside. In a medium saucepan, heat the remaining oil and saute garlic and onion for 3 minutes, add the beef and chorizo, cook until beef is no longer pink. Add the potatoes and carrots, raisins, salt, black pepper and soy sauce. Stir fry for 3 minutes, add 1 tablespoon water, cover and let simmer for 30 minutes until all the liquid has been absorbed. Add the well drained sweet peas and mix well. Transfer to a shallow container and let cool completely before using, or refrigerate overnight.

juicy beef filling inside flaky and tender pie crust

photo Neal Oshima

What I am interested to know is the recipe for the empanada with wavy multi-layered crust (like a mille-feuille) that comes from Silay, Negros. (BTW, the Neal Oshima photo below is from my cookbook Memories of Philippine Kitchens by Amy Besa and Romy Dorotan). If anyone has the recipe or knows how to make that distinctive layered crust, please, pretty please let me know.