Deviled Ham Spread

I love Underwood meat spreads specially deviled ham but the container is so small, 2 or 3 cans are needed to make a decent-sized sandwich. Well, actually, the pate is for small crackers or canape, not for a huge sandwich. I decided to make a copycat deviled ham spread adapted from several recipes I found online. The spread is delicious.

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Pretzel Bites

with kosher salt

coated with cinnamon sugar

I love pretzels, the chewy kind, not the ones you get from the mall that are very light and soft. When I read about pretzel bites, I just had to make. I didn't follow the recipe I used to make the buns except for the poaching step because I didn't want to wait 2 days to sample these tiny treats. They are so good just with kosher salt and yellow mustard but also great dipped in milk caramel or coated with cinnamon sugar.

Pretzel Bites
adapted from King Arthur Flour recipe

pretzels
1 cup bread flour
1½ cups all-purpose flour
2¼ teaspoons instant yeast
1½ teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon sugar
8 ounces warm water

poaching liquid
3 cups hot water
4 tablespoons baking soda

topping
kosher or pretzel salt
sesame seeds
melted butter
cinnamon sugar

• Mix pretzel ingredients in a medium bowl. Knead by hand for 5 minutes. The dough should be soft and smooth but a little slack. Sprinkle a little flour on kneading surface and on top of dough. Cover with a plastic container and let rest for 30 minutes. 
• Preheat oven to 450°F. 

• Divide dough into 6 pieces. Form each piece into 1-inch thick rope. Cut into 1-inch pieces. 
• In a medium saucepan, let water boil, then add baking soda. Lower heat to simmer and poach pretzel bites in batches for 20 seconds. Use a skimmer to remove bites; place 1 inch apart on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. Sprinkle half with coarse kosher or pretzel salt or sesame seeds. Leave the rest plain. Bake until dark brown, about 15 minutes. 
• Transfer salted bites on wire racks to cool or dip a few in yellow mustard and eat right away. While still warm, dip plain bites in melted butter and immediately roll in cinnamon sugar. Or leave some plain and serve with milk caramel or Nutella.

chewy crumb

Hokkaido Mango Chiffon Cupcakes

Hokkaido baked goods, from milky bread loaves to cakes, seem to be so popular in Asia. Many food blogs have been baking chiffon cupcakes for years now. I might as well join them.

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Meatless Chili Bean Stew

Sometimes, I crave for meatless dishes not just during Lent season when I try to give up excessive amount of meat every Friday. White chili bean stew topped with shredded sharp cheddar is one of my favorites because it's light, flavorful, and protein-rich.

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Sausage and Shrimp Jambalaya

Listening to my Cajun music playlist made me want to have jambalaya. I didn't have andouille sausage and cajun seasoning. Fortunately, I have all the ingredients to make both seasoning and sausage. Just like Spanish paella, it is a simple dish to prepare and absolutely satisfying. Next time I make, I'll add duck meat instead of shrimps.

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Limoncello Tiramisu

I'm getting old and forget things more often nowadays. I bought a large bag of lemons forgetting I already got a smaller one a week earlier. That's too many lemons and so I thought I'd make lemon tiramisu. Well, I didn't. I made limoncello tiramisu instead with the limoncello I made in August 2013. At least I used up a few pieces of the lemons.

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Stewed Fruits

It's Spring! It's sunny and current temps are screaming for ice cream, and fruits. Spiced stewed fruits and vanilla bean ice cream. Yum!

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Oreo Thin Mints

It's that time of the year again when young girls [accompanied by adults] come door to door to deliver preordered cookies. I bought cookies from them probably once many years ago. I think a 9-ounce box of tiny cookies @$4.00 is too expensive, IMHO. I admit I'm a cheapo and I can buy some of their exact same cookies from the grocery store under different names baked and sold by Keebler®. These cookies are no longer "homebaked" by girl scouts for many years now..

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Water Kefir Drinks

I bought water kefir (pronounced keh-FEER, not Kiefer as in Kiefer Sutherland) grains to make naturally carbonated soda pop because I prefer the drinks not just with unprocessed sugar but also with low sugar content. Initially I was hesitant to try because I was worried I might get candida/yeast infection and other skin ailments from drinking it but I read that the grains don't have the same candida yeast and may actually help in its cure for those who suffer from it.

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Oven Cheese Fries

I love French-fried potatoes; frying not so much. Toaster oven to the rescue: oven fries with cheese, crispy bacon, and pickled jalapeño. Sooo yummy!

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Homemade Cola

I rarely drink colas and we rarely have them in the house, although once in a while I just have to have a bottle of ice cold Coke® whenever I'm eating Philippine noodles pancit guisado. I don't know why but for me pancit doesn't taste the same without it.

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Green Tea Marble Kasutera

I know I'm late for the Kasutera/Castella baking party. It seems every food blogger has baked this Japanese sponge cake. I finally gave in and baked one adding green tea powder to a third of the batter. The oil-free cake is surprisingly soft and moist, and not too sweet.

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Australian Meat Pies

I've bookmarked the recipe for these small Australian meat pies which I read about in a Filipino food blog, of all places, about 2 years ago. I'm not a meat pie enthusiast and never tried making them until a few days ago when I suddenly had the munchies for these meat pies. It must be the wintry weather. Haha!

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Ube

For the umpteenth time, I'm writing about ube,a variety of yam that's naturally colored purple. The root vegetable is used in the Philippines as an ingredient in sweet snacks and desserts. I have yet to see it added to savory dishes though.

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Oggi Dreams of Jiro's Tamagoyaki

Oh, I've been dreaming of Jiro style grilled omelet since I viewed the documentary, Jiro Dreams of Sushi, many months ago. I looked for copy cat recipes online but didn't find any that looks like Jiro's but read that his recipe has mountain yam, shrimp called shiva ebi, sugar, salt, mirin, and a little soy sauce. In the movie an apprentice does preparation techniques for 10 years before he is allowed to try making tamagoyaki.

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Black Beans And Corn Chili

Aside from lima beans, fava, and green peas, I've never seen other fresh legumes until a few days ago when I spotted black beans in the fresh produce section of the Korean grocery store. I had no idea how to cook fresh black beans. I simmered the beans in plenty of water for about an hour and they came out sweet, tender, and the beans taste way better than canned. 

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Black Tea Blondies

This week's recipe is brought to you by the book Going Shogun, a free Amazon Kindle download. The very funny SciFi-ish mystery thriller is set in a dystopian USA where a caste system of society is in place and everybody works hard to "Ascend" to the next level. The novel has nothing to do with shogun or the Japanese. The protagonists work in a popular restaurant that serves outrageous food items such as Stuffed Pigeon Cactus topped with a strawberry pop marinade, or Sausage Gravy Ice Cube, or Cheesecake Meatloaf. The only "normal" sounding item is Butter Tea Brownies which gave me the idea of making Black Tea Blondies. 

BTW, Butter Tea is actually a salted Tibetan tea drink which is very good and is more like soup because it has no sugar. 

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Tikoy Turon for Chinese New Year

2014 is Year of the Horse in the Chinese Calendar and New Year starts on January 31, 2014. Many Filipinos including myself have Chinese ancestry which is evident in our culture, language, and specially food. For me it's that time of the year to make tikoy.

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Chicken Liver Adobo Pâté

I don't know why but I've been into liver pâté the past few months. Growing up I never liked liver of any kind but now I'm really loving it specially in pate. And being a Filipino whose favorite food is anything edible cooked adobo-style, I prepared the pâté with chicken liver adobo; yummy on crusty pandesal. I covered the jar of pâté with rendered pork fat instead of the usual melted butter.

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Sourdough Country Bread

It's been months since I baked sourdough bread. And I also neglected to feed my starter for months and months until last week when I made waffles. I was certain it was dead but after waking it up just once, it proved to be stronger than ever before. So I decided it was time to try baking my version of the famous Tartine Bakery Country Bread using my sourdough starter instead of preparing a new one. The bread came out flavorful with a thin crispy crust and moist soft crumb. Although I'm happy with the flavor and texture, I'd have been happier with a more open crumb with large holes.

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Sourdough Kefir Chocolate Waffles

New year, new promise to eat healthier. I'm not sure if I can keep it, or if I want to. Haha. First on the list is consuming fewer carbs which is near to impossible because I can't live without bread and rice. I'd rather exercise 1 hour every single day than go without having them. Or maybe I can limit carbs gradually and at the same time regularly add other healthy stuff to my diet like kefir and yogurt. I eat Greek yogurt often and once in a while buy kefir drinks from the store. 

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