The Curious Tummy

2012-10-23T04:31:00.002+08:00

Dropping By...

2011-12-16T03:38:00.002+08:00

Gosh, it's been a while huh?

Don't worry, I've been baking. I just never got around blogging about it, more so taking pictures of the whole process. It's too tedious, haha... plus I have work, so my schedule's pretty messed up.

Anyway, just wanted to post something since I received a comment about what a disaster their own baking adventure turned out because she followed my recipe. She bitched that her *expensive* blueberries would look better elsewhere. Yes, she said *expensive* blueberries (asterisks included for emphasis), but she also said they were blueberry pie filling. I would assume she used Comstock, the gooey type in a can used for PIES or cheesecake toppings. I stated preserves, which has lesser liquid in it because it's mainly fruit pulp. Canned pie fillings tend to thin out and get really mushy. Besides when you're in doubt, you can always drain it right?

I am NOT an expert. I am an ordinary girl with a fancy for cooking and baking. I have no formal training whatsoever. Like everyone else, I use Google for recipes and improvise when some ingredients aren't available. I watch baking techniques on YouTube and Martha Stewart like any diligent home baker.

So, why am I blogging about my kitchen EXPERIMENTS? For me to have record of the things I did and to practice my writing (which got me hired btw). I have a record of what works and doesn't. I don't have patience to write down recipes longhand in a notebook along with explanations and memories attached to each baking session. I'm weird that way, so sue me. I do not proclaim my EXPERIMENTS as successes or must tries. In fact I am my biggest critique, and I do nitpick on my posts. Maybe in some way all I to get out of this blog is to inspire people to experiment as well. Like the Coriander Seed Cookies, many got curious with that. Who would've thought a spice like coriander seeds can be used to flavor cookies?

So my challenge to you is this: Live curiously. I research about similar recipes and tweak them to fit what is available to me. Do the same, in fact double your research if you feel that the ingredients you're using are costly... and for crissakes, READ. Obviously, snotty comments like *expensive* blueberries tick me off. Don't you read? Don't you know how to research? Don't you have the common sense to drain those damn *expensive* blueberries? Or fold in the drained blueberry instead of stirring it like crazy which probably cause more liquid to pop out of those little buggers.

For those confused about the fuss, apologies. Because I live in a developing country, people here think of artificially flavored blueberry pie fillings as expensive. I know exactly how much a canned blueberry pie filling costs, and it's not going to *expensive* when used appropriately. (can I get an amen on this?)

If you're still adamant about finding no-fail recipes, may I recommend a tested site: JOY OF BAKING? The said site is good for newbie home bakers. They have the recipe in detail and even some videos for how to's. Almost a no-brainer. There are only two things that may cause a disaster when following their recipes: 1) poor substitution of ingredients and 2) the baker.

Yeah, I'm bitchin' too... and I'm done. Bow.

Peace, Love, Happiness, and hopefully Curiosity starts now.

Hurricane Irene: Thumbtack Seeks to Help – Thumbtack Blog

2011-08-28T19:05:00.000+08:00

Hurricane Irene: Thumbtack Seeks to Help – Thumbtack Blog

To moms, moms-to-be and grandmoms...

2011-05-08T03:18:00.001+08:00

Siomai or Shumai: Steamed Pork & Shrimp Dumplings

2011-05-06T12:28:00.002+08:00

Confused as I am about how its spelled? There are a lot more, just try to Google "siomai". Apparently there are a number of ways to spell "siomai" as to how many variations it has. Siomai recipes varies from region to region and from country to country.

The term "siomai" or in the traditional Chinese 燒賣 or 烧卖 in simplified Chinese, literally means to cook and sell. So I guess you might want to double check on your Chinese character tattoo if the someone played a prank on you. :p

Seriously, siomai dumplings are pretty easy to cook. Just combine everything into a paste, fill the siomai wrapper then steam.You don't really need to have a bamboo steamer, I'm using a aluminum round pan and a metal steamer. You can even use a makeshift steamer using a large deep pot and any heatproof dish small enough to fit into the pot.

Here's a staple recipe in our kitchen, this usually comes out during Sunday dinner paired with a noodle dish. Feel free to modify to you taste. The pictures below may look a bit gross because of the raw meat, but that's how burgers start, right?

STEAMED SIOMAI

INGREDIENTS

*makes about 30 pieces

2 cups ground pork with 1:3 ratio of meat to fat

1 cup minced jicama (singkamas)

1/2 cup chopped shrimps

1/3 cup chopped shitake mushrooms

1/4 cup minced carrots

1/4 cup minced chinese sausage (la chang)

2 tbsp minced scallions + 1 tbsp for topping

1 tbsp minced ginger root

7 tbsp of sesame oil

3 tbsp cornstarch + 2 tsp accord powder

2 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 egg

Siomai wrapper

PROCEDURE

1. Except the siomai wrapper, combine everything in a large bowl using your hands or in a food processor.

2. Once well combined, prepare you siomai wrapper. Scoop in about 1 tablespoon of the meat mixture on the center of the siomai wrapper and shape. See picture above on basic siomai shaping.

3. Arrange in a pan and steam for 15-20 minutes, depending on the size of the size of the siomai. Do not over steam as it will result to mushy dumplings. Serve hot with soy sauce and calmondin with Chinese chili-garlic sauce.

My mom's kick-ass family-of-6 steamer. LOL! I think this was my grandmother's.

See? A 3-step process. Though I'm not going to lie to you, this is one of my fave food but all the chopping and mincing of ingredients can be tiresome. So get someone to help you out, I think kids would like to help you shape the siomai like my nephew did. Just give them instructions and make sure have them wash their hands after.

Chocolate Banana Marble Bars: Modified Banana Black-Bottom Bars

2011-04-09T20:56:00.002+08:00

I was planning to make Kahlua bars but my mom wanted to have me bake another banana bread. Seriously, they can't seem to get enough of the stuff! I tell you it's a comfort food, anti-depressant and all.

So I was preparing mash bananas while I was sulking a bit because I really wanted to make bars. They're easier to eat and store. So my curious self wondered, are there any interesting banana recipes? I went online and browsed through Banana based bars; I got intrigued with Black Bottom Bars from eHow.com. What made it black bottomed, cocoa. Hmmm... chocolate and banana sounds mighty nice.

So I whipped up a batch, but instead of layering it, I decided to create a marble-like effect to make them look pretty. It's really a good alternative than baking banana bread whenever you have over ripe bananas. You can add chopped nuts, choco/caramel chips or dried fruit.

CHOCOLATE BANANA MARBLE BARS

INGREDIENTS

Makes approximately 24 bars

3 medium sized bananas (mashed to make 1 1/2 cup)

1/2 cup softened salted butter

1 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/3 cup chopped walnuts

1/4 cup cocoa powder

PROCEDURE

Preheat oven to 350F and line/grease a 13x9 baking pan.

1. Combine all dry ingredients (except cocoa) in a bowl with a wire whisk.

2. In a larger bowl cream butter and sugar. Mix in egg and vanilla until well combined. Pour in mashed bananas.

3. Into the wet ingredients, pour in the flour mix and whisk until combined. Split the batter between two bowls. At this point you can add in chopped walnuts.

4. In one bowl, add in cocoa powder and mix well.

5. Use two separate spoons and drop alternating amounts of each mixture into the pan. Using a barbecue stick or a thin knife, swirl the batter to create a marble-effect.

6. Bake for about 25 minutes or until toothpick test comes out clean.

It tasted much like a banana bread, though denser. I thought of dousing it with some Kahlua after baking and letting it cool in the refrigerator... it turned out some what like a crude version of banoffee. :)

Baby Bunny Treats: Not for humans!

2011-03-29T14:54:00.003+08:00

Charcoal, my baby bunny.

It's been 3 days since my last post; to me that's already unnerving. I've been cooking during those days, but have not documented them as detailed as I would want since I've been getting my hands full with a little critter.

I bought Charcoal 3 days ago from a pet store; the first night I went into a panic mode because he didn't touch his rabbit pellets and he doesn't drink out of the water bowl. The first two days I had to feed him water through a Q-tip and feed him with minced pieces of carrots since that's all he want to eat. I've read that it was not good for the rabbit to eat carrots all the time as it contains mostly sugar and starch which will lead to gastric problems and obesity, so I have to find a way to feed him pellets and other vegetables. Oh, we don't have timothy hay since rabbits aren't really common pets here in the Philippines, we're more of a dog country. And no, I am not going to use him as meat, fur or breeding. He's a pet!

So I was researching on how to incorporate pellets and other vegetables into his diet. I read an article on making homemade bunny treats but it's mainly composed of fruits and will just be used sparingly. I tweaked it to suit my intention of letting him eat vegetables and pellets at the same time; I came up with a cookie crumble mix that he loved and enjoyed eating without me worrying about his tummy problems.

BUNNY TREATS

INGREDIENTS

1/3 cup pellets

2 tbsp finely minced carrots

1/2 cup wom bok (or other allowed green leafy vegetable) minced

2 tsp basil leaves minced

2 tsp rosemary minced

2 tbsp rolled oats

water

PROCEDURE

*Preheat oven to 250F and line cookie sheet.

1. Process everything in a grinder or a food processor until mealy. Slowly add water until coming together like a dough.

2. Flatten onto the lined cookie sheets and bake for 15 minutes or until dry. Let cool and cut into bars or crumble into small pieces.

I made test batches with this, adjusting the amounts of herbs to what he liked. It smelled like a spicy-herby organic snack we humans eat; but of course, do not eat these! These are for your rabbits!

Charcoal became lively after I fed him these, and his poop looked normal. He liked the basil and rosemary very much. I guess I satisfied his gustatory wants and needs at the same time. So, what herbs does your bunny like? :)

Chocolate Espresso Cake with Cafe Latte Cream: a Happy Birthday Dad cake

2011-03-26T04:07:00.002+08:00

A very happy cake slice.

Yesterday was my dad's birthday so I thought of making him a cake that he would really like. I asked him a few weeks back what flavor he likes to be in his cake; answers were obvious: coffee and liqueur. So I took upon myself to look for a luxurious cake (without breaking my budget) that uses coffee and liqueur; I found a few coffee cake recipes but none inspired me. Of course it was my dad's birthday and I wanted it to be special.

While searching, I came across a food blog titled: The Broke and Chic Project. For me that was a catchy blog name since I'm nearing broke but still wanting to be chic, lol! One of her recent posts was of her stab at Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Espresso Cake with Cafe Latte. I was immediately wanting to know more about it; me being a big fan of Nigella Lawson, I just couldn't let this pass by. Reading thru, I found it pretty easy but a bit unusual since it uses only half a cup of flour and 6 whole eggs. Is this a cake for real? I've researched on the cake more and found that it has all the same ingredients and sourced Nigella's cookbook Feast: Food to Celebrate Life. Once that was made sure of, there was no stopping me in becoming a wannabe domestic goddess. Uhmm... well, not really. :)

I did catch a few snags here and there. First dilemma I had were the highlight ingredients which were instant espresso powder and Tia Maria. I haven't really scoured all the supermarkets and specialty shops here in our city, so I don't have an idea where to get those. And by the looks of it online, it's a bit pricey. I checked on possible substitution and found a few. For the espresso powder, it said that one can use strong instant coffee powder but it would result a bit of sourness to the cake; I thought, the heck, a little sourness won't kill anyone. Then the Tia Maria, which I have never heard of before, turns out to be a rich Jamaican coffee liqueur. Uh oh, by the sound of that it's definitely expensive. Some recommended to use Bailey's Irish Creme with the cake, which is lighter on the pocket. So off I went to the grocery and went treasure hunting. Strange that Bailey's was sold out (I went to 3 liquor sections), so I figured I was destined with Kahlua, a Mexican coffee liqueur. It actually costs less than Bailey's and quite versatile! Another destiny: a lone bottle of Megdalia D'Oro instant espresso powder on a market shelf; it kinda stretched my budget, but it's all for the love of good quality food and my dad. And yes, I checked the expiration date.

The second dilemma was about the springform pan. I do not have a springform pan; my mom never even heard of such contraption (and all baking tools I used is hers, figure that). She only has a pie pan with a removable bottom. Fudge. I again researched on substitute pans but they were all risky to do with this cake being too soft. So I had to mall/shop hop to find a 9-inch springform pan. Getting close to the end of the day I was really tired when *insert heavenly sound effects* an image of what seems to be springform pan appeared before my eyes. It was such a magical moment for me. I was so happy... only to be doused with the detail that it's a 8-inch springform pan. Arrrgh! At this point my feet were already killing me and I was in no condition to reason, so I just bought the damn thing. Went home confused; what if the pan overflowed? I posted a question on the comments box of Sam (TheBrokeandChicProject) asking about by how much the batter filled the pan, how much it rose when baking, etc. She was so accommodating to my questions and even provided me option where to get a springform pan (THANKS SAM!). My dad's birthday was coming up really close so I decided to just use the 8-inch pan and a couple of individual cupcake tins.

NIGELLA'S CHOCOLATE ESPRESSO CAKE WITH CAFE LATTE CREAM

INGREDIENTS

Chocolate Espresso Cake:

5 oz (142 grams) semi-sweet chocolate, chopped

1 stick plus 3 tbsp butter, room temp

6 eggs, room temp

1 1/4 cup superfine sugar (used regular sugar and processed it in a grinder until fine)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup all purpose flour

5 tsp instant espresso powder

1/4 cup coffee liqueur (used Kahlua)

Cafe Latte Cream:

3 oz (85 grams) white chocolate, chopped

1 1/2 cup heavy cream

2 tsp instant espresso powder

PROCEDURE

*Preheat oven to 350F. Line and prep a 9-inch springform pan.

1. Melt semi-sweet chocolate and butter using the double broiler technique or microwave for 1 minute. Mix well and set aside to cool.

2. In a large bowl, combine eggs, sugar and vanilla extract. Beat until pale yellow, mousy and doubled/tripled its original volume.

3. Sift in all purpose flour and espresso powder into the bowl and fold gently.

4. Slowly pour in melted chocolate + butter and fold again. Careful not to lose the volume created.

5. Bake for about 30-45 minutes until top is firm, but underneath is still gooey.

6. Pour coffee liqueur immediately into the cake. Let cool or store in refrigerator to chill overnight to let flavors mingle. Do not fret when it sinks, it's meant to do that.

7. A few hours before serving the cake, prepare the Cafe Latte cream by melting the white chocolate using the double broiler technique or microwave for 1 minute. Let cool to room temp.

8. Fold in heavy cream and espresso powder. Optional: chill to achieve ideal consistency for frosting.

9. Serve in a bowl and dust powdered sugar/cocoa/espresso powder on cake. OR spread onto cake and drizzle with melted chocolate/dust with cocoa/espresso powder.

OMG!!! The cake was phenomenal! It was thick, rich and so flavorful. The cream was pure comfort. Though I must admit I got a bit overwhelmed with the Kahlua since I haven't had an alcoholic drink for over a year. My dad loved it! He said it was malinamnam which is Filipino for deliciously tasty. Me and my nephew (my lil' helper: who cracked the eggs and measured ingredients for me) got a thumbs up. Hoohah! :)

Of course, there was a child in the house who is off limits to coffee and liqueur; so I decided to make a separate batch just for my nephew. The halving the cake recipe, omitting espresso powder and liqueur.

Gooey chocolate cups.

Of course, the cupcakes are going to be boring if by their lonesome... so I came up with this:

Chocolate cup base topped with vanilla ice cream + chocolate drizzle.

I've don't own a Nigella Lawson Feast cookbook; but after this, I'll have this on my wishlist. I heard there are are more recipes that are utterly sublime, for example: have your ever heard of a Chocolate Guinness Cake? Only Nigella can pull off such sinful delights with a sexy twist.

Coriander Seed Cookies: Sugar + Spice turned out Nice

2011-03-23T18:14:00.006+08:00

"The manna was like coriander seed" (Numbers 11:7)

Last week I bought a bottle of whole coriander seeds thinking it would be useful just in case we'll be in the mood for vegetable biryani. They happen to be cheaper than I expected; Php 25.00 (less than $1) for a 40g bottle. I guess I was lucky to be in the grocery when they were restocking their supplies, the grocery attendant said their spices often ran out quickly.

Coriander seeds are not actual "seeds"; they are dried fruits of the coriander plant, a herb whose leaves are called cilantro or chinese parsley. Almost every part of the coriander plant is used for cooking, the roots are used mainly in Thai cooking. One might think that both the fruit/seed and leaves share the same flavor, but it does not; surprisingly, the seeds are sweet, peppery and citrus-like in taste and scent compared to its leaves (cilantro) which are soapy and rank. Because of the sweet nature of this spice, it's an interesting addition to cakes and breads.

On my previous post, I made meatballs using coriander seeds. I was really intrigued since it was the first time to work with the spice. I googled on baking recipes using the seeds, but most of them turn out to be either Asian or Middle Eastern stew dishes. I just found one recipe so far using coriander seeds in baking; this cookie recipe is adapted from Mum In Bloom, which she apparently got from Green Earth Institute. I made a few tweaking again since I was aiming for a butter-less cookie and used brown sugar instead of white (saving them up for dad's birthday cake). Also, the posted recipe made use of ground seeds; since I had whole ones I used (again) the coffee grinder attachment of our blender and pulsed it for a minute or so. We don't have cookie sheets, but the baking pans work well. I use them all the time.

My nephew adding the trimmings.
Dreaming to be a Junior Master Chef! :)

Luckily I had some help from my nephew. He said he wanted to go to cooking school this summer hence he was enthusiastic enough to help me out. He practiced cracking the egg, whisking and rolling the whole batch. He also wanted to have some chocolate involved, so we added what we had available: candy coated chocolate drops just before baking. It was that easy; if a seven year old can do it, so can you! :)

Lemony slightly-peppery cookies!

CORIANDER SEED COOKIES

INGREDIENTS

2 cups flour

1 cup brown sugar

2 tbsp coriander seeds grounded

1/2 cup + 2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 tbsp milk

PROCEDURE

Preheat oven to 400F and line/grease cookie sheet.

1. Combine flour, sugar and coriander seeds in a large bowl. Stir in oil until well combined.

2. In a separate bowl, lightly beat egg. Add milk and vanilla. Pour this mixture into the flour-oil mix. Mix well.

3. Roll dough into balls and place onto baking sheets. Flatten with a fork.

4. Bake for about 10 minutes. Do not overcook or cookies will become too hard. Let cool.

I'm glad my nephew has taken an interest in baking; because he would just sit too close to the TV all the time. He was a bit nervous at first, but he eventually enjoyed it; especially when he was munching one cookie after another. As for me, I had to control myself since I'm watching the calories; but the cookies were certainly addicting. The taste was unusual, but in a good way. It pairs well with nice hot cup of earl grey tea.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (and Pasta): Sunday Dinner

2011-03-21T01:48:00.003+08:00

Sizzling balls!

On the previous post, I mentioned that Sunday lunch at home is always like a thanksgiving feast. My mom puts such an effort in cooking when everyone's home that she tires herself out by the afternoon. That's the time I'll be taking over the kitchen and giving our house helpers a headache with the mess I'll be leaving behind. Hehe...

One of my favorite things to cook is pasta. I love pasta! It's so easy to make too. Just cook the pasta in boiling water, drain. Toss in extra virgin olive oil and fresh garlic and herbs, then top with parmesan cheese. Yum!

Well, I wish it was that way with the rest of the family. Since the rest of the family are hearty eaters, they demand something heavier than just olive oil and garlic. They need meat. This Sunday, they wanted meatballs.

I love watching Rachael Ray 30-minute Meals because everything seems so easy. She loves eyeballing measurements on her ingredients and has a carefree spunk about her. A year or so ago, I was watching one of her episodes where she was cooking spaghetti and meatballs. I didn't really write down what she said, but the main ingredients I remember. Overtime I would concoct my own version of meatballs and pasta sauce. The recipe isn't really a constant, depends on what ingredients are available; and like Rachael Ray, I just eyeball ingredients and rely on my tongue. But let me give you a standard recipe, you can edit it along the way. :)

Linguine and meatballs. Molto delizioso!

MEATBALLS AND PASTA SAUCE

INGREDIENTS

*Cook 500g of desired pasta according to package direction.

Meatballs:

*makes about 2 dozen medium sized meatballs

2 cups ground lean beef

5 well-toasted wheat bread slices, cubed

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 tbsp dried basil

1 tbsp ground oregano

1 tbsp coriander seeds

1 tbsp ground pepper

olive oil for frying

Pasta Sauce:

extra virgin olive oil for sauteeing

1 large white onion chopped

1 canned diced tomatoes

6 cloves garlic chopped

1 beef cube dissolved in 1 1/2 cups water

2 tbsp tomato paste

1/2 tbsp basil

1/2 tsp oregano

salt and pepper to taste

parmesan cheese

PROCEDURE

1. In a blender-grinder attachment, grind together cubed toasted wheat bread, coriander seeds, oregano, basil and pepper until it becomes fine breadcrumbs.

2. In a bowl, combine ground beef, breadcrumbs and egg. Use hands to mix the meat well. Form into balls and pat with paper towels to dry a bit (this will help the meat brown well)

3. Cook raw meatballs in a large frying pan with olive oil. Set aside meatballs in a plate.

4. In the same pan, remove darkened oil and replace with fresh olive oil. Sautee onions until translucent. Add garlic and spices, continue sauteeing until aromatic. Then add canned tomatoes, water with beef cube and tomato paste, simmer for a few minutes in medium heat. Stir well to avoid scorching the bottom of the pan, add salt and pepper to taste.

5. Place cooked meatballs into the sauce and simmer for 5 minutes. Pour on cooked pasta and top with parmesan cheese.

Whew. It has been a long day and I'm exhausted as well. Good thing there's still some Buko Pandan Salad left especially for yours truly. :)

Buko Pandan Salad: A Filipino Dessert

2011-03-21T00:04:00.008+08:00

Pandan leaves and water boiling away.

Mom sent me an SMS while they were out this morning; they went to the market to buy a week-supply of meat, vegetable and groceries. She requested me to make Buko Pandan salad since she was going to buy fresh buko water from her favored vendor, so she might as well get fresh buko meat prepped too. What's nice about mom's favored buko vendor is that you just tell him what the buko is for (salad, pie filling, etc.) and he already knows which buko to choose and how to prepare it for you. He's like a buko whisperer!

Buko is the Filipino term for young coconut. It's the green coconuts which yields clear sweet liquid and tender meat. Niyog is for the mature ones which have no coconut liquid and tough meat usually grated and squeezed to produce coconut milk. Since we're going to make a salad, young coconut meat is preferred.

Pandan is a tropical plant native to the Southeast Asia and its leaves widely used for cooking. When cooked it gives off a sweet aromatic botanical scent and flavor; but the leaves are not eaten. Known to the west as Screwpine leaves, it's mostly used for dishes involving rice, cakes or sweets. Surprisingly, the leaves can also be used as cockroach repellent.

We used to have a pandan plant around the house but I think I over-harvested the leaves at some point that it died, oops... Anyway, it's a good thing that mom had leaves stocked in the refrigerator. She also had green gulaman (dried Agar-agar) bars, nata de coco (coconut gel) cream and condensed milk. Very girl scout-like, always prepared. She does that a lot, have ingredients stocked and making me guess when she's going to use them until she sends me a texts message to do so.

I ❤ gulaman and nata de coco.

BUKO PANDAN SALAD

INGREDIENTS
5 cups water
15-20 pcs pandan leaves
2 pcs gulaman bars (any color, but preferably green)
3 cups young coconut meat strips (prepped to be used for fruit salad)
250ml all purpose cream
300 ml condensed milk
12 oz nata de coco, drained (optional)

PROCEDURE
1. In a large pot, boil water together with tied pandan leaves until aromatic and water has a green hue. Remove and discard leaves.
2. Add in torn pieces of gulaman bars. Stir and cook until no gulaman pieces are visible. Pour into a rectangular pan and cool. You can place the cooling gulaman in the refrigerator as long it doesn't burn/melt the shelve parts. Leave for about 30 minutes. While waiting...
3. Whip cream and condensed milk in a large serving bowl. Stir in coconut meat and nata de coco.
4. Take out the pan of gulaman and slice/cut into cubes. Stir into the rest of the coconut mixture.
5. You can serve immediately or store in the refrigerator to chill further.

I often make this on Sundays, alternating with fruit salad and tapioca pudding. Sunday lunch is always like a thanksgiving feast since everybody's home and it's market day; so the dining table is up to the brim with seafood, meat and vegetable dishes. When someone comes to visit they often joked that they'll make a habit of visiting us every Sunday. Not only because the hefty food tastes delicious, but we're hearty eaters and according to them it's fun to watch us eat so they get to do the same. Huh?

Anyway, after market day and cooking a feast, my mom would get exhausted by the afternoon. That's when I step in and mess up, ehrr I mean, take over the kitchen *evil laugh*... and the house helpers look at each other helplessly, they know what kind of chaos I leave when I take charge of the kitchen, teehee...

Pancakes or Griddlecakes or Hotcakes or Flapjacks: Identity Crisis

2011-03-19T17:38:00.003+08:00

What's in a name?
This called by any other name, would still taste sweet. :D

So which one? Actually, all of the above! :)

Different countries have different versions of this breakfast or snack treat. They call it by different names, not just the ones I mentioned above. It can be savory or sweet. Thin or thick. But all share the same principle of being cooked in a frying pan or griddle. Archeological studies even proved that the earlier forms of these flat cakes were found dating prehistoric times which were cooked on hot stone or shallow earthenwares over open fire. Cool.

I was getting bored today because my nephew went with my mom and dad to get a new refrigerator. I have no one to annoy *evil grin*. The past months my mom was complaining how our old refrigerator was acting up and spoiling her stock of meat and veggies. It's strange that overtime, the refrigerator seem to get smaller. Or is it that the food consumption in the house is getting bigger? I guess the latter, since like I hinted in the past few articles that my family is known to have a healthy (?) appetite; even my once-stick-figure nephew became a picky-but-voracious eater. Anyway, what was I supposed to talk about again? Oh yeah... So I was bored. And a lot of people would know that boredom would sometimes trigger curiosity; and I was getting hungry too. Curious and hungry, haha! A nice combination. :D

I wanted something sweet. I was thinking of making my version of kettle corn, but I'm not in the mood for crunchy food. Something soft and chewy perhaps with blueberries? Bake? Ehhrr... can there be something simpler? Stove top please. Lighbulb!

I was keeping my fingers crossed that my mom had store-bought pancake mix hidden somewhere. Nope, didn't see one, though she's good at hiding stuff. Blah, it would be so easy if I had the instant mix; I guess I'll be doing this the hard way. Online I go to JoyofBaking and found a supposed tested recipe.

Cooking on the griddle with blueberry preserves and banana slices.

Let me correct myself, it's actually EASY and has the simplest ingredients! But of course you have to measure this and that, but it's almost the same as you would cook the store-bought version. You can even experiment with spices and flavors. Besides, have you read the ingredients on pancake mix box? Chemical much?

HOMEMADE PANCAKES

INGREDIENTS

*Makes about 8 medium sized pancakes.

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 tbsp sugar

1/4 tsp cinnamon (optional)

a pinch of ground cloves (optional)

1/2 tsp vanilla (optional)

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1 cup milk

2 tbsp melted butter

PROCEDURE

1. In a large bowl, mix all dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, cinnamon & ground cloves.

2. In a separate bowl, mix all wet ingredients except banana and preserves. Pour this into the dry ingredients and mix until combined. Do not over mix, you'll be aiming for a curdle like batter.

3. Heat a non-stick pan or griddle on stove top. The pan is ready when you place in a drop of water and it bounces. Brush with a little butter.

4. Pour 1/4 cup or more into the pan, depending how big you want your pancakes to be.

5. When the top starts to bubble and the bottom becomes brown, flip over and cook the other side. Serve warm with a pat of butter and pancake syrup.

If you wanted to add fruits or preserves into the pancake, just add them when the top starts to bubble and cover them with a bit more batter so it won't burn the fruit.

What I love about these homemade pancakes is that there is no weird metallic or acidic after-taste that I would often get when using store-bought pancake mix. Everybody should really get to know what they are feeding themselves with. This one is definitely a keeper in my book. :)

Peanut Butter & Blueberry Muffins: Experimenting Without Butter

2011-03-18T23:39:00.007+08:00

A friend messaged me on Facebook requesting a recipe. She's one of the good-natured people I met in college and had a chance to work with when I was heading one of the college student councils. She relayed to me that during their architect board exams last year, she and her board batch mates had a food-gasmic experience with peanut butter and blueberry jam sandwiches. They wondered how it would taste like as a cake or muffin; but they never got around to do it. She requested if I could make an experiment out of it. And the curious me was happy to, of course.

Peanut butter is made from processed dry roasted peanuts; it's pretty easy to make too. Although the term "butter" mainly refers to the dairy kind; pureed nuts, fruits and vegetables are also called butter. Since I'm preparing to bake a cake for my dad's birthday this coming week, I've been wanting to save the baking butter I had stocked. So I wondered if I could use peanut butter instead of butter? I researched online and read that vegetarians happen to substitute nut butters in place of dairy butter in baking, but most of their ingredient are hard to find. So I researched instead on a peanut butter recipes and found a nice muffin recipe from CalorieCount which uses mostly peanut butter and fresh blue berries. Since I'm skipping the butter, I'm not quite sure how the moisture from the peanut butter would fare in this recipe, so I decided to replace the prescribed amount of butter with vegetable oil instead; since it said melted butter, I guess it was ok to use oil.

But I had a problem, blueberries happen to be a bit expensive. I was doing a face-palm when I read her request because last January, my aunt brought us packs of frozen fresh blueberries from the US and we just ate them as it is. It didn't occur to me to bake it into any dish because it actually tasted pretty good by itself. I could've made some sort of jam or preserves out of them. Arrrgh... So I checked the grocery and found 3 blueberry options: jam, pie filling and preserves. I made pros and cons of each before deciding which one to pick. The jam felt like it was too sweet and felt too artificial, I wanted some bits of blueberries. Pie-filling seems to be a logical choice but costs more than the others, so I just settled for the preserves since it's costs less than the filling but has more blueberry bits than the jam.

I used brown sugar instead of white because the peanut butter and preserves were already sweet; then added a bit of vanilla and a pinch of cinnamon for more depth. It turned out okay, but not as risen as I would like them to be. I would always imagine perfect muffins to be like the ones in Starbucks.

Blueberry Streusel Muffin. Image from: www.prolocoparete.it

Mine turned out more like fat cupcakes and having smoother tops:

My peanut butter and blueberry stunted muffins. :D
apologies for the picture, my camphone is acting weird. :(

Maybe it's because of the peanut butter? or mixing it too much? or using preserves than fresh whole blueberries? or did not preheat the oven well? or maybe I put too little in each muffin pan well? I don't know. Maybe I could make just plain blueberry muffins next time to see what went wrong. I read too that the baking powder must've been old. Or maybe Starbucks use some kind of magic powder to make those bulbous muffins, since most homemade muffins turn out somewhat like mine. Oh well. It still tasted peanut-buttery good with little pockets of blueberry preserves. They're good, but not that perfect aesthetically. :)

PEANUT BUTTER & BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

INGREDIENTS

1 3/4 cup all purpose flour

1/3 cup sugar

2 1/1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional)

1/2 tsp vanilla (optional)

1 large egg

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

3/4 cup milk

3 tbsp vegetable oil

1/3 cup blueberry preserves

PROCEDURE

*Preheat the oven to 350F and line/grease muffin pans.

1. Mix all dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon) in a large bowl. Set aside.

2. In a separate bowl, mix all wet ingredients (vanilla, egg, peanut butter, milk, butter) except preserves, until well combined.

3. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients, and pour the wet ingredients in then stir until just combined.

4. Fold in the preserves, do not over fold it in! Put a spoonful into each muffin well. Better yet, do the filling method: instead of folding it in, place 1 tablespoon of peanut butter batter into the muffin well, dollop a teaspoon of preserve on top of it then cover it with another tablespoon of peanut butter batter.

5. Bake for about 18-20 minutes or until toothpick test comes clean. Let cool.

Peanut butter happens to be a good source of resveratol, protein, vitamin B3, E, magnesium and anti-oxidants. Called the "healthy brain food", I guess it proved its worth since my friend and all her peanut butter & blueberry loving batch mates passed the board exams! UP Mindanao had a 100% passing rate! You could imagine the stress they may have encountered, but I guess with the addition of blueberries in their diet they have enough vitamin C, flavonols and phytochemicals to fight it off. Haha...

Anyway, it was fun doing this and having helped someone out of their own gustatory curiosity. 'Til next time! :)

Non-food Musing: Better Blogging?

2011-03-17T02:57:00.002+08:00

I don't really know if I'm supposed to be embarrassed or what. Normally I would just write away and not care about how the blog looks and how reader-friendly it can be -- mainly because I doubt anybody would actually read or visit this site. I just saw the stats and noticed the increase in traffic. Mostly from blog forums I participate in. Avid fans of those popular blogs must've click on my name by accident or just sheer curiosity. I do know a few visitors which mainly are my schoolmates from UP Mindanao, but still, you know how we roll in school, we're are trained to be critical!

Wait... so that means Chuvaness and MarketMan checked on my blog too?

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG.... breathe kAi... breathe.

Mygollygoshwow... pressure na ito. Oh well.

Banana Walnut Bread: Simple but Yum!

2011-03-15T21:53:00.009+08:00

My mom requested I make Banana Bread; she bought Cavendish bananas which were on sale because they were starting to go overripe. I guess she missed the stuff since I went into baking different recipes.

Bananas are pretty stoked if you ask me. Besides being a nice dessert after meals or a snack, it's packed with a unique composition of nutrients while gives us a lot of health benefits. High in potassium and low in salt, it's a perfect way to battle high blood pressure. Bananas contain trypthopan, which helps the body in processing another protein found in bananas called serotonin; these acts as anti-depressants and reduce feelings associated with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and even PMS. Eating bananas helps us re-balance when we're stressed by replenishing your potassium reserves. It also helps you recover when you're experiencing withdrawal from trying to quit smoking. Bananas works as antacid to soothe heartburns and is recommended as a hang-over cure by making it into a milkshake.

Before I get to scientific about bananas, just think of this: have you seen an angry monkey if you give him a banana? ;)

Okay, that was lame... haha! Anyway, the bananas mom bought were close to over ripe and spotty, perfect for baking. I decided Banana bread instead of crumble bars since it's the easiest thing to bake. A friend posted on my Facebook wall that my blog is not for beginners. I choked a bit. Flattered in some way, but bothered that I'm being too ambitious with this blog. Ehe, I think she might be right; like my mom is right about me focusing on the basics. So let me rewind myself a bit and present to you the reason that got me hooked to baking; the bread that started it all:

The culprit: Banana Walnut Bread.

BANANA WALNUT BREAD

INGREDIENTS

*makes 1 loaf

3 Cavendish bananas

1 stick (1/2 cup) salted butter, room temp

2 large eggs

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/3 cup chopped walnuts

1/4 cup raisins optional

1/2 tsp cinnamon optional

1/4 tsp nutmeg optional

PROCEDURE

*Preheat oven to 375F. Butter loaf pan.

1. Mash bananas to consistency of baby food. Should make at least 1 cup. Set aside.

2. Soften butter then beat in eggs, vanilla and sugar.

3. Add in flour, salt and baking soda. Mix well until smooth. Mix in mashed banana until well incorporated in the batter.

4. Pour half of the batter into loaf pan. Distribute walnuts and raisins on top to get even amounts of walnuts throughout the loaf. Pour remaining half and spread evenly. Top with more walnuts and raisin if preferred.

5. Bake for 50 minutes. Test if done by piecing the loaf in the middle with a thin bbq stick, if it comes out clean, it's done. If batter still sticks, bake for another 5-10 minutes. Once done, take out of the oven and completely cool before slicing or removing from loaf pan.

...completely cool before slicing or removing from pan isn't a virtue practiced in our house. As soon as it comes out, someone would sneak past me and help themselves. I was luck enough to get the shot above without any crust pinched-off. But who wouldn't want to have a warm slice of Banana bread then topped with vanilla ice cream or slathering it with more butter?

After it was done, left it on the kitchen counter to cool. Then I took a bath, listened to some Adele. When I got back to remove the bread from the pan, it was already wiped out; and me the baker didn't have a change to taste it. Sigh.

Anyway, if Cavendish seems to be unavailable, local bananas called Lakatan can be a substitute. About 3-4 bananas of this variety will work with this bread, make sure that they're really ripe and don't mind the bruised parts because they're the best. You could also use any baking pan or muffin pan instead of a loaf pan. Add more nuts, less or none. Raisins or no raisins. I even tried mixing finely grated carrots making it a Banana Carrot Walnut Raisin Bread. Now that's a mouthful, but tasted yummy too! ^_^

Feed the Soul: Helping Those Who Are In Need

2011-03-15T01:02:00.007+08:00

Prayer is a very powerful tool. I believe in the power of prayer.

I also believe that God provided us with the resources to help those who are in need.

Before spending that Php100 ($2) on things you can somehow postpone or live without,

you might want to think about the people left with just the clothes on their back.

Japan needs not just your prayers, they need help and donations too.

You can send your donations through Groupon Philippines
which will be fully given to the Red Cross International Relief Fund for Japan.

Groupon Philippines will be matching your donations up to Php30,000.00,
increasing the amount that will be given to the relief fund.

Click on the image to know more.

I am not a paid advertiser for Groupon. I'm from Davao so obviously Groupon is almost meaningless to me, except for causes like this. I got inspired by Chuvaness. Not because it's hip, not because it's cool; because I'm doing my part as a concerned human being. Yes, there are a lot more people suffering in this world. And this is one way to help lessen it.

Sweet Spicy Bagoong: Reminiscing

2011-03-14T22:11:00.003+08:00

You know the feeling when your mouth is seeking for something sour? Like green mango sour? I'm having that feeling right now and can't wait for tomorrow to buy green mangoes from the fruit stands in our kanto (street corner). This is what I love about living in a not-so-urbanized area: you can still walk a few blocks to the bakery to buy warm pandesal, take your pick at the local produce stands, freshest eggs and watch gays in one salon holler at each other gossips about the gays in the other salon.

Crisp sour green mangoes paired with sweet and spicy bagoong. *faint*

Whenever I have the green mango craving (no, not pregnant, wish though) I check with my mom if she still has fresh (not salted/processed) alamang (minute shrimps/krill), so I can make my own ginisang bagoong (sauteed shrimp paste). I like it sweet and spicy, reminiscent of the bagoong sold together with green mangoes along the sidewalk of Ateneo High School. While I was still attending school there, during lunch, I would visit a cart and buy a bag or two of mangoes and overload it with bagoong. Haaay... heaven. Sure it's stinky, but I made sure to brush my teeth after because my classmates were the "sosyal" type (typical Ateneans) and feign at the stench of this lowly treat. Pffft... *rolleyes*

Anyway, back then I've been quite curious how they were able to make such an addictive version of bagoong. The ones we buy bottled in the grocery were okay, but not really something I would pair with the mangoes. They were more for viand pairing, not much for snacking. :)

I tried to remember how it tasted like and it's viscosity. When my mom was out one afternoon, I searched for ingredients in our kitchen, experimented over the stove and made sure everything I used were washed as if nothing happened. My mom found it funny that I was hiding what I was doing because she can see that her ingredient supply were clearly being used up. My parents said that I could certainly survive when left alone in the house, unlike my siblings who were dependent on hot dogs and canned goods.

From the time I attempted to copy the bagoong, I nailed it. No. I take that back. Mine was better. Haha! It certainly was not sparse with alamang and not thickened with cornstarch. Sweet and spicy, good enough not only to pair with green mangoes or blanched kangkong (river spinach), but as a viand too. My aunt and grandma ate it with rice, and I was like... uh... interesting, but no thanks.

SWEET SPICY BAGOONG

INGREDIENTS

water

2 tbsp corn oil

1 tsp sesame oil

1/4 cup fresh alamang

1/4 scant cup brown sugar

3 cloves garlic, well-crushed

1/2 tsp rock salt

a pinch of cayenne pepper

PROCEDURE

1. In a non-stick pan, heat the oils, sugar and a tablespoon of water together in low heat. Mix until sugar starts to melt into the liquid.

2. Add alamang and garlic. Stir constantly so sugar would not burn. Add a tablespoon of water if too thick.

3. Once the alamang starts to give out it's aroma, stir in salt and cayenne pepper. Remove from heat and let cool.

4. Serve with sliced green mangoes or blanched kangkong.

It's so good that instead of the mangoes being the star of the meal, it's the bagoong. My sister said that the mangoes served as rice while the bagoong was the ulam (viand). Hehehe...

Ahhh... Simple pleasures. :)

Sencha Overload: Shake and Cake!

2011-03-14T16:56:00.002+08:00

It's freakin' hot here in Davao right now. I was trying to do some reading, but my mind is not cooperating because of the heat. I needed to do something to cool me down else my neurons will be fried. I was drearily bored of revisiting a thesis paper I'm being forced to finish, I can't focus!

Fruit shakes sounds enticing at this point, but I preferred something lighter and not too sticky-sweet. I remembered how I loved Starbucks's Green Tea Frappucino as a perfect chill drink for the dizzying heat in Cebu City. Since I'm currently a bum, I don't have money to spend on those professionally prepared drinks. Good thing I bought a pack of Sencha which costs about one green tea frappe from Starbucks. That pack have seen several cups of green tea, cookies, cupcakes and my current kitchen experiments; and I still have some left! Now that's money well spent.

Last time, I made Sencha powder from using the coffee grinder attachment of our blender. I used the same homemade powder to make this green tea. If you noticed there are some specks of leaves visible compared to what you may find from the coffee shops. Those in high-end coffee shops would probably be using genuine finely milled Matcha powder hence it's a bit pricey. Other lower-end shops offering the same would be using the commercial green tea powder mix, but I find those scary since there are a lot of additives I don't even know how to pronounce. So I'll stick with my homemade powder until I get a tin of authentic Matcha; at least I know what I'm drinking.

Refreshing and light, perfect for the summer heat!

SENCHA (GREEN TEA) SHAKE

INGREDIENTS

*makes 2 12 oz glasses.

2 tbsp Sencha powder

2/3 cup soya milk

1 tbsp sugar

a pinch of cinnamon

12 ice cubes

PROCEDURE

1. Pour soya milk, Sencha powder, cinnamon and sugar into a blender. Mix well.

2. Drop ice cubes about 2-3 at a time then pulse. Add more ice and pulse/shake until satisfied with the consistency.

3. Pour into a tall glass and enjoy.

I used less sugar so I had a semi-bitter shake with just a hint of sweetness coming from the soya milk. I chose soya milk because I think it compliments the grassy taste of Sencha, as both are from plant derivatives. It turned out nice, light, refreshing and cleaner to the palate compared with the coffee shop versions, which mainly used cream and glucose syrup in place of the soya milk and sugar and topped off with whipped cream. So it depends on your mood which one you'll go for, something creamy and comforting or something light and refreshing.

Of course drinks won't stand alone, you need something to munch on too. I mentioned before, that I made cupcakes out of Sencha; this time I made the same batter but poured it into lined rectangular baking pan and spread ground almonds on top. It brought about thin cakes, somewhat like pancakes, which I cut into small bars. I was actually thinking of making some filling and sandwiching it between 2 bars, then cover it with dripping royal icing much like Petit Fours; but of course that was too tedious for a hot day. I just settled for simple and thin cake bars good for snacking.

Thin chewy bars with subtle sweetness.

SENCHA (GREEN TEA) CAKE

INGREDIENTS
3 eggs
1/3 cup oil
1/3 cup brewed Sencha Tea, cool to room temp.
1 1/3 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup + 3 tbsp sugar
2 1/2 tbsp Sencha powder
optional almond topping:
1/3 cup whole almonds
1/4 cup powdered sugar
2 tbsp flour

PROCEDURE
*Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and line a baking pan or cupcake molds.
1. Mix flour, baking powder, tea powder and in a small bowl. Set aside.
2. In a bigger bowl beat eggs, oil and tea until light yellow. Sift in dry ingredients. Mix well.
3. In a coffee grinder attachment, ground together whole almonds, powdered sugar and flour until mealy.
4. Pour green tea batter into baking pan/molds. Sift/distribute the ground almonds on top.
4. Bake for 30 minutes or toothpick test comes clean.

Hmmm... I wonder if there are other tea varieties that are equally versatile like Japanese green tea?

Chocolate Dipped Sencha Cookies: Zen Decadence

2011-03-11T17:05:00.007+08:00

Last night I was trying to arrange my baking ingredients when I found a used pack of Japanese green tea leaves. I bought it last month because I wanted to practice making a green tea cake for my boyfriends birthday (hopefully he gets to come home during that time). In the Japanese store, I asked the storekeeper if they had Matcha, which was more commonly used for confectioneries; unfortunately they had none, so I got the pack of Sencha tea leaves instead.

Japanese green tea in general has a delicate and detailed art of harnessing tea leaves. It's called by different names depending on how it's grown, processed and prepared. Two of them are the ones I mentioned above. Matcha is select leaves grown in a shade, dried flat and finely milled. Sencha is free dried leaves, rolled and then roasted. For detailed descriptions of Japanese green tea, click here.

I used the Sencha tea in cupcakes before that used steeped tea in hot water instead of powder. It was pleasantly refreshing but was a bit dense because of the number of eggs that the batter required. It tasted a bit egg-y, but still, it was a well-appreciated treat by everyone; it had just the right sweetness with a hint of bitterness. Hopefully I'll be able to make a lighter cake batter next time, I doubt the recipe I had would bake well as a full sized cake because of its density.

I wanted to give the green tea I had another form, cupcakes seemed to be bit heavy and needed to be consumed immediately. I thought, what if I made cookies? But I was stumped for a minute, I only had Sencha tea leaves. Matcha suits cookies since it's powdered form, cookies often require less liquid. What now?

Then my usual curious self took the coffee grinder attachment of our blender, spooned in a couple of tablespoon of tea leaves and set the speed on liquify. And yey! I got grounded tea leaves, though not that fine as the Matcha, but I think it would work fine as a substitute.

So I got going with a simple shortbread cookie recipe from the Joy of Baking site and added a twist to it. Here's the result:

Half dipped with chocolate to accent the green tea flavor.

CHOCOLATE DIPPED SENCHA COOKIES

INGREDIENTS

Shortbread Cookie (makes about 1 dozen medium-sized cookies):

1 stick salted butter (room temp)

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1 cup flour

1 scant tsp vanilla

1-2 tbsp of grounded Sencha

Chocolate Dip:

100 grams of semi-sweet chocolate

PROCEDURE

*make cookie dough the night before; shortbread cookie dough keeps for a week if frozen.

1. Cream butter. Add in powdered sugar and beat until smooth for about 2 minutes.

2. Beat in vanilla and ground Sencha.

3. Stir in flour until incorporated. Flatten dough into disk shape, double wrap in plastic wrap and paper towels; then store in the freezer overnight.

4. 15 minutes prior to rolling out the dough, take it out of the freezer to thaw in room temp. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and lightly flour baking sheets.

5. Roll out the dough into 1/4 inch thickness on a lightly floured surface with a rolling pin. Cut desired shape and place on cookie sheets.

6. Bake for about 15-20 minutes. Let cool.

7. Melt chocolate in a small heat-proof bowl over hot water. Dip cookies halfway then place on wax paper lined line baking sheet. Place in the refrigerator for an hour or until the chocolate hardens.

My sister thought it was an interesting flavor and worked well with coffee. She also said that she's going to franchise Starbucks in a soon to open mall here in Davao and feature what I've been baking. She's kidding of course. :)

As I am writing this, the TV is tuned in to CNN's coverage of the recent Japan earthquake and the tsunami threats to countries facing the Pacific Ocean, including the Philippines, specifically my province Davao del Sur. I thought that it was quite a strange coincidence that I was blogging about something Japanese. Hmmm... Freaked out much? On a serious note: Lord, for whatever reason this has happened, may we come to accept it and learn from it. We lift this up to You. Amen.

Oatmeal Cream Cheese Calamansi Bars: Clearance Day Bake

2011-03-08T20:44:00.001+08:00

Besides Dad complaining about the quick disappearance of our egg supply, Mom also complained about our monthly supply of LPG (we have a gas stove-oven) barely lasting for 3 weeks because of my baking. But my parents are supportive enough to not totally ban me from the kitchen; besides, all of us have a sweet tooth, they couldn't resist the stuff I bake. So, I can still mess up the kitchen, as long I keep it to a minimum, a day or two a week. Ehehe...

Today happens to be a "clearance day"; everything that is near their expiration date would need to used ASAP. Mom has this habit of keeping things in stock, so she'll never panic when she needs them. It's a good habit, but only applicable to staple kitchen ingredients.

Mom urged me to cook Pasta Carbonara for lunch since mushrooms, lean bacon and pasta noodles have been sitting by their lonesome for the past months; the bacon actually had a seal that said "Best Before February 2011". She told me my siblings and nephew are not a fan of lean bacon; they want fat. Sigh.

We also have a cream cheese bar that's about to expire by the end of next week and still some oatmeal left. So I thought, what to do with these? Online I went and found a recipe by Anne Burrel from FoodNetwork.com which made use of cream cheese, oats, lemon and butterscotch chips. I checked the pantry and thought one word: "improvise". No butterscotch chips - have dark and white chocolate chips instead. No lemons, but we have lots of Calamansi. Hmmm... wonder how it fares with the recipe?

Oh, did you know that our Calamansi is Calamondin orange in the west? And it's more sour than a lemon, though lemons have more juice because of its size. It's also called acid orange or panama orange. Though it's sour, the zest/peel is a bit sweet and fragrant.

I was confused as to how to zest such a small fruit. I could skip the Calamansi and just settled for vanilla; yet I thought that was such an easy way out. It must be done. So after I squeezed the amount of juice I needed, I scraped off the insides of the Calamansi until the pit is off and chopped it into tiny little pieces. Voila! Calamansi zest.

I tweaked a few ingredients for added character to the bars. A decadent sweet treat with citrus (juice) and floral (peel/zest) hints hidden in the middle.

Sweet sour and salty... Chewy, gooey and crumbly...

OATMEAL CREAM CHEESE CALAMANSI BARS

INGREDIENTS

Cookie layers:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 3/4 cups uncooked oatmeal/rolled oats

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/3 cup dark and white chocolate chips

2 sticks of salted butter, cold & cubed into pea-sized pieces

1/4 cup vegetable shortening

Cream Cheese layer:

1 (8oz) package cream cheese (room temp)

1 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk

2 tbsp calamansi juice

1 tsp finely minced calamansi peel

1 tsp vanilla

PROCEDURE

Preheat oven to 350F; line a 10x14 inch rectangular pan with foil overlapping the sides for easy pull out from the pan.

1. In a big bowl, combine flour, oats, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and chocolate chips. Mix well.

2. Add in shortening and butter and mix using an electric hand mixer until it becomes crumbly and forms lumps when pinched.

3. Take half of the oatmeal mixture and pressed evenly on the bottom of the pan. Make sure it's well packed. Bake for at least 15 minutes or until it is set and golden brown along the perimeter. Let cool while still in pan.

4. In a clean bowl, cream the cream cheese and slowly add the condensed milk. Mix until smooth.

5. Mix in juice, peel and vanilla. Once done, spread evenly on top of the semi-baked layer.

6. Top the cream cheese with the remaining oatmeal mixture and bake in the oven for 40 minutes or until the top becomes golden brown.

7. Let cool completely before slicing into bars. It is recommended to store in the refrigerator for about 2 hours before slicing and serving so cream cheese layer will become firmer.

As soon as I pulled it out of the oven, my sister exclaimed that our house smelled like Starbucks and ran over to the pan to get a piece. I had to shoo her and her son away because it wasn't cool enough to slice through yet. And when it was, my sister was the first one to grab a piece, and her son followed. She then brought out a food container and said to reserve pieces for her. Her son asked: "Yes Tita Kai, reserve some for my baon.", to that she replied "No, it's my baon.". Sigh.. like mother, like son. :)

Croquembouche: Profiteroles Cake

2011-03-06T14:21:00.005+08:00

I seem to have a Profiterole craze for the past days; I guess I'm aiming to somehow perfect it. To be honest, Choux pastry is one of the most easiest things I've tried making, just stick with the ingredients to the dot. To see your pastries puff is such a reward; you can fill them with whatever flavor you want. I've gone through failed attempts, but they're not completely useless.

Anyway, my sister is coming home from Manila today after a two week stay. She feels a bit low lately, so I decided to somehow cheer her up. Me and her son wanted to celebrate her coming home with a nice cake. I didn't feel like making an ordinary cake. Still fascinated with puffing Choux pastries, I decided to make a Croquembouche.

Croquembouche is a high cone of Profiteroles coated with caramel sugar and decorated with spun sugar, chocolate, flowers and ribbons. In French, it literally means "crunch in mouth" attributed to the crunchy texture of the caramel sugar coating of each Profiterole. It's traditionally a French celebration cake for weddings and baptismals, but now are a usual addition to dessert buffet as a centerpiece.

To form into an even cone, a stainless steel / paper cone is used by most professionals. I'm no professional, but I wanted to make one, even just a small one. Instead of using a cone, I just stacked the filled pastries in a circle and used caramel sugar as glue. The finished product is, like my sister described, a leaning tower of Puffpuff.

My first Croquembouche with ganache drizzles and spun sugar: a foot high.

Has a homey but elegant feel to it, right? The shape is uneven because I just made the pastries in random sizes. The concern I had was with the spun sugar, it melted once I left it in room temp and it was a bit humid today and I got a nasty burn on my hand while handling the spun sugar syrup. :(

I made a different filling this time, a Vanilla Crème Patissière (Pastry Cream) and made use of the Ganache still left from last time. I meant to stick to basic flavors because I'm not really sure how things would turn out, I didn't want to waste ingredients in another disaster. But you can replace vanilla with almond, lemon or other extracts to make the cake more interesting.

VANILLA CREME PATISSIERE

INGREDIENTS

1 1/4 cup evaporated milk

3 egg yolks

1/4 cup white sugar

2 tbsp all-purpose flour

2 1/2 tbsp cornstarch

1 tsp vanilla extract

PROCEDURE

1. Whisk together egg yolks, sugar, flour and cornstarch until smooth.

2. In a small saucepan, heat milk until steam comes up.

3. Pour half of the milk into the egg mixture and whisk immediately. This will introduce the egg to the hot milk without making it into scrambled eggs.

4. Set heat to very low and slowly pour the egg mixture into the saucepan while whisking.

5. Whisk to prevent the bottom from burning. Continue until mixture become thick and smooth (1-2 minutes).

6. Remove from heat and transfer into a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap touching the surface to prevent film from forming. Let cool for at least 2 hours before using as filling.

SPUN SUGAR

INGREDIENT

1 cup white sugar

1 tbsp corn syrup

1/3 cup water

PROCEDURE

1. Pour all the ingredients in a small sauce pan. Heat covered saucepan until all sugar melts into the liquid.

2. Remove cover and let boil until color turns into deep amber. Cool for about 2 minutes.

3. Use a fork to create threads by dipping its end and spin around the Profiterole tower. Repeat until satisfied with the amount of spun sugar web.

CAUTION: SPUN SUGAR SYRUP IS CRAZY HOT. BE CAREFUL WHILE HANDLING, ELSE YOU'LL END UP WITH SOMETHING LIKE THIS:

:( Ouch. And eww, I desperately need a manicure.

Although it caused me some pain, the spun sugar web is absolutely beautiful. It's so delicate and whimsical. But let's just reserve the technique for very special occasions from now on, shall we? I wouldn't want to be constantly covered with nasty burns. And I think it would be helpful to have a bowl with ice water nearby just in case. ;)

Click this link for the Choux pastry and Ganache recipe.

Spicy Hot Tablea: Cacao drink with a Kick

2011-03-04T19:05:00.003+08:00

I took a break from baking today because I don't feel well. Actually, I feel down. Hence I was trying to find something to lift my spirits up, something comforting. Something to give you a warm fuzzy feeling like the ones you get when you wake up on a chilly morning and cuddle close with someone special. Such tenderness. I miss that. I miss Baguio.

I had wonderful food memories from the city of pines, among which is Cafe by the Ruins. Located at Chuntug Street, this historical food trip destination boasts of using only the best natural and local produce from the region. One of their unforgettable offerings is the Dark Bittersweet Chocolate served in a demitasse. It was so thick that I became confused of whether to drink it from the cup or use a spoon and take it like a soup. This drink is made of pure Tablea, carabao's milk, cream, muscovado sugar with a hint of cinnamon. Who knew that a gustatory-orgasmic drink can be created using local ingredients!

My tongue was suddenly reminiscing the feel of the tablea drink; the sweetness when it goes into your mouth then the bitterness once it spreads onto your tongue. I must have a Tablea drink pronto!

What is Tablea? Tableas are little thick disks/balls/bars of pure grounded Cacao seeds.

So what is Cacao? I thought we were talking about chocolate? Well, Cacao is the tree where all the chocolate goodness starts from. The Cacao tree produces fruits with seeds covered in tangy fleshy pulp. The seeds are then processed into different derivatives: cocoa powder, chocolate liquor and cocoa butter --- ingredients you should find printed on your favorite chocolate wrapper. :)

When I was younger, we had a neighbor who had a Cacao tree, every time it yielded fruit she would invite me to eat the fleshy pulp and place the seeds in a colander. I happily ate until my heart's content but never understood then why she wanted to reserve the seeds and dry them on the roof. Curious I got (I developed the habit since I was a kid), I saw that she had a makeshift oven where she placed the now dried seeds and roast them until they smelled earthy and a bit sweet. I haven't seen what happens next, but I noticed a giant mortar made of stone and a pestle (at that time, taller than me) made of hardwood in her garage. I made a deduction that after she had roasted the seeds, she would pound it into a paste using the mortar and pestle; well, since I was a sneaky kid I looked into the mortar and found dark stains that had a strong smell which was the same as the smell coming out of the oven. The time we moved into another house I learned from reading a book in the school library that chocolate is made out from Cacao seeds. Our neighbor was in fact making Tablea!

Tablea has all the fat and grits from the roasted seeds. Pure and unfiltered. If I'm not mistaken, much like what the Mayan and Aztecs made during their time. Unfamiliar with sugar, the Aztecs added hot chilies into their "xocoatl'" for added flavor. Hmm... what if?

Luckily I still had some Tablea left from a baking experiment last week (which I will make again in time). I took some bottles out of the spice cabinet, sugar and milk. I was a happy kid again.

Earthy gritty rich goodness. ^_^

SPICY HOT TABLEA

INGREDIENTS

25 grams of pure unsweetened Tablea (approx. 2-3 thick disks)

3/4 cup evaporated milk

1/2 cup water

1 tsp brown sugar

1/8 scant tsp ground nutmeg

1/8 tsp ground cayenne pepper

PROCEDURE

1. In a small saucepan, combine milk and water until it simmers.

2. Add Tablea and sugar. Whisk until no large lumps appear. Remove from heat.

3. Continue whisking until liquid becomes shiny and fragrant; whisk in nutmeg and cayenne pepper (adjust spice to your liking).

4. Pour into a cup. Enjoy while hot, or cool down a bit. The more it cools the darker and thicker it becomes.

*If you don't appreciate the gritty texture, you can strain the still hot liquid through a fine sieve.

I took a sip and felt my spirits soar. The spices gave it a nice kick that leaves your tongue chasing after the innate sweetness of the Tablea. I understood why the ancient cultures revered chocolate as an elixir; it has a way of putting you into a good mood.

Of course the "good mood" stays whilst enjoying the rich beverage... So I'm thinking of making another cup, hehe... :)

Banana Cinnamon Filling: Making the best out of a Profiteroles FAIL

2011-03-03T17:00:00.005+08:00

Yesterday, I made some adorable looking Profiteroles. Inspired to make them bigger, I decided to make another recipe of Profiteroles today. I got too excited and went on making the recipe of Choux pastry from memory. I had a song in my head and was bobbing my head to it the whole time. Bad idea.

While piping the second batch of pastry dough onto the baking sheet and waiting for the first one, already in the oven to bake, I felt something was off. I noticed the batter was easier to squeeze out than yesterday's. I decided to check and see if the first batch are done. There was definitely no puffing and the undersides of the pastry was turning brown too fast; it had some sort of foamy bubbles forming around each pastry. PANIC.

What the heck happened? Why is there oil in the pan? Fudge.

Julie Powell was wrong: You CAN have too much butter.

I didn't realize I placed a bar of butter (equivalent to 2 sticks) instead of halving it to put into a recipe of which resulted to an oily mess in the baking sheet and a flat dense pastry.

Also, I think I have a problem with eggs. In the French Macaron fail, it got whisked too much; I was heavy handed with them. Now with today's Choux, I added 1 too many. I pray I won't have any egg-related disasters anytime soon, my dad already complained about me using up the egg supply in the house.

I told my boyfriend about how I got so pissed at myself for messing up the eggs again and he couldn't resist cracking these lines:

"Don't beat your eggs too much, I mean, yourself too much."

"I know you want it perfect, but you gotta spill some egg, I mean milk to make a good one."

What a supportive boyfriend I have noh?

Anyway, I had no other choice but to find a way to make them at least palatable. The pastry were dense and had the strong taste of egg and butter. It was crusty on the outside and very dense inside. The crust reminded me of egg tart... hmm... what if.... LIGHTBULB!

I scurried through the kitchen and looked for ingredients. Remembered a cooking show making custard cream by combining milk, sugar and egg yolk. Whatelse? whatelse? Oooh, nice bananas... Wondered if there were any banana filling recipes, so I researched on the net. Too many of them, so I decided to derive from them a pretty basic recipe which I had the ingredients for.

So I made Banana Cinnamon Filling. Originally, I made just a plain banana filling, but it lacked warmth, it was just, well, boring. We only had local bananas, a Cavendish variety would've done a better job. And so I got some cinnamon powder, mixed it in.

Thus the impromptu Banana Cinnamon Filling turned these sorry looking pastries, from this:

Looked like dried up p---... oh, nevermind.

To these (of course, with the help of chocolate Ganache and powdered sugar)...

Pastry sandwich?
Scoop out insides thru the bottom. Fill with filling.
Assemble sandwich. Drizzle with Ganache and dust with powdered sugar.

(Piped these ones into bee-hives.)
Cut off the top. Scoop out the inside.
Fill with filling. Replace top.
Drizzle Ganache and dust with powdered sugar.

My nephew ate one... and another... and another. Mom ate the scooped insides, licked off the spoon I used for the filling. My dad had his mouth full with one as soon as he arrived. Even dogs even liked the burnt ones!

As for me... knowing it's a FAIL made it look less appetizing, because I know how this should taste like if these were puffy and light. I've gotten my dose of humble pie.

Here's the recipe of the filling I made that somewhat saved the day. Be warned it's very simple as I had to make it from scratch.

BANANA CINNAMON FILLING

INGREDIENTS
1 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup white sugar
2 tbsp of cornstarch
1 tbsp flour
2 egg yolks
1 ripe banana
1/8 scant tsp fresh kalamansi juice
1/8 tsp vanilla
a pinch of cinnamon powder

PROCEDURE
1. Mash banana in a bowl. Mix in kalamansi juice to prevent the bananas from browning.
2. Sift together cornstarch, flour, sugar and cinnamon.
3. Scald milk in a saucepan. Stir in the sifted dry ingredients until no lumps appear.
4. Beat in egg yolk, one at a time. Continue stirring until thick and smooth. Remove from heat.
5. Pour in mashed banana and vanilla. Mix well. Let cool before using.

Upside: There were still some Ganache left, so I sliced some bananas and apples. Et voila, faux-fondue as consolation. ;)

Profiteroles with Ganache Filling: Chocolate Puffpuffs!

2011-03-02T20:52:00.003+08:00

I suddenly had a craving for Cecil's Cream Puffs: pastries filled with cream custard and topped with coffee-sugar syrup. Cecil's is a local fast-food & bakery way before popular fast-food chains franchised in the Davao. Before Goldilocks and Red Ribbon came to the city, Cecil's was the best option for pastries and cakes. Unfortunately, I've come to notice overtime that the quality of their goods became too commercialized. I don't know, it's just not the same as the ones I remember from childhood.

So I got curious, how are cream puffs made?

Cream puffs or Profiteroles (as it's promptly called) are dessert dishes made out of Choux pastries filled with sweet fillings such as whipped/pastry cream, custards and even ice cream. The Choux dough upon baking relies on its high moisture content to produce steam and create air pockets inside the pastry, hence the puff. The pastry itself is a bit bland, having only hint flavors of egg and butter, originally used for savory dishes by the French and English during the 16th century. I guess someone thought it was a good idea to fill these pastry shells with something sweet around the 19th century and the name Profiteroles was then meant only for Choux pastries filled with sweet fillings, and they named the savory filled ones as Gougeres.

The shape of the Choux pastry also influences how it's called: Profiteroles are ball-like, Eclairs are long and thin; or how it's cooked: Crullers are twisted pastry shaped like a ring and deep fried, Beignet are filled with fruits preserves and fried (like filled-donuts). Apparently, you can pipe Choux dough straight into a fryer and you get Churros!

The bottom line: Choux pastry is a recipe that every aspiring home-baker should know.

Another recipe that I find necessary to know is a simple Ganache. It's a French term for the heavenly mixture of heavy-cream and chopped bitter/semi-sweet chocolate. Different ratio between the chocolate and cream determines the consistency of the Ganache to serve its purpose: filling, frosting, glaze or icing.

Since Ganache is also versatile and technically easy to do, I settled to make Profiteroles filled with simple Ganache.

My first profiteroles with ganache oozing out. So cute!

PROFITEROLES - CHOUX PASTRY

INGREDIENTS

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp sugar

1 stick salted butter

1 cup milk

4 large eggs

PROCEDURE

1. Preheat oven to 400F; grease or line baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Sift flour and sugar in a bowl. Set aside.

3. In a saucepan, heat milk and butter until butter melts and slightly simmering. Set the heat on very low at this point.

4. Add all the sifted flour-sugar mixture into the saucepan and stirring vigorously with a wooden spoon or heat-resistant spatula until the mixture comes together in a dough-like consistency. Remove from heat and let cool for a few minutes.

5. Slightly beat the eggs in a separate bowl. Then add in egg in 2 parts to the dough, mixing well after each addition. The dough should now be a shiny batter-like consistency.

6. Pipe with a pastry bag or dollop with a spoon onto the baking sheet. Each plot should be at least 1 inch apart to give each pastry a room to puff.

7. Bake for about 40 minutes in the preheated oven or until amber in color. Note: for gas ovens, place the sheet on the top slot so the bottom of the pastry will not get too dark or burn.

SIMPLE GANACHE

INGREDIENTS

10 ounces (283grams) semi-sweet chocolate

1 cup all-purpose cream

PROCEDURE

*You can make this ahead of time, chill preferably overnight so you would have a Ganache fit for whipping.

*This recipe is good for 1 1/2 recipes of average sized Profiteroles, but you can use the excess as a faux-fondue dip for mallows and fruits.

1. Chop chocolate into small pieces and place it in a heat-proof bowl. Set aside.

2. Heat cream in a saucepan until bubbling. Immediately remove from heat and pour into the chocolate. Leave for at least 5 minutes.

3. Whisk until mixture is well incorporated.

Putting it together:

1. Make sure that the profiterole pastries are cool enough to handle. Poke a hole on the side of the pastry, just enough for the tip of your pipping bag to fit.

2. Take out a well-chilled batch of Ganache and whip in a bowl until it becomes stiff. Place in a piping bag.

3. Pipe the Ganache into the pastry through the hole. Dust with powdered sugar.

While I was letting the pastries cool, my nephew kept of bothering me to let him taste one. It's not even filled yet, but he dips the pastry into the Ganache instead. That's another way to eat it, like a round baked Churro.

The ones I made were hardly 2 inches big, I wasn't sure how well it puffs so I started off with making them small. Practiced my piping skills too; used a open star tip Wilton #21 to create a rosette.

My mom seemed to like it, she only complained that they were too small, good for one bite. I guess besides making Profiteroles, I also made Petit Fours!

I'll be making another batch of Profiteroles tomorrow in sizes good for an appetite like my nephew. Maybe with a different filling and top it with the Ganache instead? Hmm...

Focaccia: Comfort Food

2011-03-02T00:10:00.001+08:00

A bit down because of the Chocolate French Macaron disaster (read previous post), I decided to cheer myself up. Two weeks ago, I learned how to make Focaccia. I bake it regularly to keep a stock since it's very tasty and versatile; you can eat it by itself dipping in balsamic and olive oil, a sandwich bread or paired with a salad or a pasta dish.

Focaccia is an Italian oven-baked flat bread flavored with herbs and can be topped with various ingredients. It's a close relative of the Pizza, but both are not to be mistaken for the other. Pizza is a thin flat crust bread with a whole she-bang of toppings, sauce and cheese where it relies heavily to pull off its flavor. Focaccia is a thicker flat bread wherein the dough itself is infused with flavors of herbs and spices. Despite the difference, you can definitely make a Pizza out of a Focaccia dough, a double treat!

A basic Focaccia dough mixture would be flour, yeast, sugar, salt, water and olive oil. Adding in herbs, spices and even vegetables of your liking into the mixture would create the flavors of the Focaccia while it bakes.

Below is a picture of the Focaccia I just made. It's a bit thick, but if you want a thinner crustier Focaccia, you'll just need to spread the dough flatter on the baking sheet. Before popping it into the oven, I brushed the dough with pureed onions-garlic-butter-olive oil mixture, topped with chopped olives and flax seeds for added flavor and texture; not mentioning the herbs and spices I already kneaded within the dough.

Warm and comforting: I'm biased to Italian flavors.

HERBY FOCACCIA

INGREDIENTS

Dough:

1 tbsp and 1 scant tsp of active dry yeast

1 cup lukewarm water

1 tsp sugar

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground pepper

1 tsp ground oregano

1/2 tsp dried rosemary

1/2 tsp dried basil

1/2 tsp thyme

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Topping:

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tbsp butter

4 cloves of garlic

1 small onion

1 tbsp flax seeds

5-6 pcs of pitted black olives, chopped/sliced

PROCEDURE

1. Proof the yeast by mixing it with sugar and water in a bowl. Leave it for at least 10 minutes or until you see foam/bubbles forming and smells like bread. If there are no foaming or bubbling, either the yeast is no longer usable or your water is too hot.

2. In a separate larger bowl, sift together the dry ingredients remaining in the dough recipe.

3. Pour in the yeast mixture and olive oil into the flour mixture, combine the ingredients together until the dough is workable for kneading.

4. On a lightly floured flat surface, knead the dough for about 5 minutes or until elastic and smooth.

5. Place the dough in a large bowl. Cover with a damp kitchen towel and let rise in a warm dark place for about 30 minutes or until dough size is doubled.

6. Once risen, punch the dough in the middle to let out air. Place it on a greased baking sheet/pan and pat it down to your preferred shape (circle or rectangular) and thickness. Let rest for another 15 minutes in a warm place. Preheat the oven at this time to 425F.

7. In a blender/processor: puree together garlic, onion and butter, pouring in olive oil to loosen the mixture.

8. Prepare the dough for baking by brushing on the garlic-onion mixture with a pastry brush. Sprinkle over the flax seeds and olives.

9. Bake for about 15-20 minutes depending on the thickness of the dough.

Cut into serving pieces, can be toasted if you want a little more crunch. I would recommend eating it with a balsamic vinegar and olive oil dip to feel like you're in your own little Italian cottage. :)