Egg Surprise

Have you ever thought of easter?  Please nooooh! Let's  celebrate occasions according to our calendar. So instead of solely thinking about colorful eggs and hunting them, here is something new that will surprise your kiddos either on special occasions or one of those lazy afternoons -- A plate full of egg surprises...

Black Pepper Spaghetti

Pasta is one of the traditions in many gatherings and spaghetti is not an exception, usually served on a hot red meat sauce. Today, getting tired of eating red spaghetti, in fact just the thought of it spoils my appetite, I thought of sparing myself from this convention and come up with something new on our table --black and peppery.

BLACK PEPPER BEEF SPAGHETTI

125 g cooked Spaghetti
1/4 g beef sirloin, thinly sliced
2 cups of sliced broccoli
2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
1/2 tsp finely ground Black pepper
1 tbsp superior light sauce (Lee Kum Kee) or any light sauce you have =) or more as to your preference
3 tbsp oyster sauce or more as to your preference
3 tbsp or more water
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) or any olive oil or just the regular oil you have =)
4 big cloves of garlic finely chopped
1 big onion bulb

Note: You may add more or less of the sauces and add salt if you like. Otherwise the above mentioned ingredients are just enough.

In case you have not cook the spaghetti yet here it is:

Cook spaghetti in hot water with salt.
Let it boil for 8 minutes or until al dente.
Drain and drizzle with olive oil. This will prevent the pasta from sticking together and it will hold its shiny al dente texture.


Black pepper sauce:

Place pan over a medium heat.
When ready, pour EVOO.
Saute garlic and onions, add beef, finely and coarsely ground black pepper and stir.
Add light sauce, oyster sauce and water. Let it stand for a minute or so.
Add brocolli then the pasta.
Mix until all the pasta is covered with sauce.
Serve hot.

Other variety:  Add 2 tsp roasted sesame seeds for garnishing and 3 tsp sesame oil to go with the sauce.

Bon Appetit! =)

Buko Pandan

It's nice having sweets that come in a handy so I thought of making something meaty and creamy today. Buko (young coconut meat) and Pandan Gelatin. In this mixture you can use the ready available ingredients, add those creams and mix. But if you really like to taste  it better, why not extend a little time and give extra effort for delicious sake.  So here it goes:

Spiced Vinegar

I love pinakurat and spiced vinegar but the thought of buying it purposely from pinoy store is inconvenient for me, worst it undermines my cravings for vinegar dependent dishes. So to resolve this craving-ness i have decided to make my home made spiced vinegar!

Buttermilk Pandesal

Spur of the moment is what bread making is for me.  The thought of kneading, resting and proofing always disappoint me. The craving is there but the thought of its process kills the craving. So its better to buy good RTE (ready-to-eat)  bread than going thru the process.  Though sometimes ego prevails and the process of kneading, resting and proofing come in handy. So once in a while,  we have hot tasty bread/ pandesal at mi casa out of varying recipes. 

True enough, every pandesal is a unique experience. Tonight I was thinking of what would pandesal taste like if I use buttermilk instead, so here is the verdict: compact, soft, smooth, and yummy!  It passed the test of aging with flying colors! It's softer and delicious after a day even without the spread or filling.

Try this and let me know your verdict.

Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll

I made bread pudding today but it never occurred to me that such outcome is a curse because I was expecting  the "BAGAFORO" way of pudding.  I know my gradeschool classmates can relate to this. =)

To appease myself of this devastation, I have decided to make my cinnabon cinnamon roll,  a baking schedule I have long been postponing for those "days of cravings." 

With grateful acknowledgment to the makukulits--Bart and Paige who brought walnuts and raisins from the grocery last friday-- an honest mistake marketing, whew!  Btw, this is how they get me to bake/cook their desires in an instant.  

Anyway, how is this done check this cinnamon roll recipe  from one of my favourite chefs Michael Smith, D' Chef at Home.  I love his show and his kitchen -- he got this walk-in cabinet of spices and all. So much for this envious--ness.

Almondigas

    I can't imagine that this recipe ever existed long enough not knowing that it was called as such. Why I am saying this, because this used to be one of our family  menu (usually misua soup, minus the almondigas of course, need not to elaborate on that) as our day to day survival ;-).   It has been our everyday food but on other days our Mamang has to invent ways to vary it : misua with meatballs, shredded chicken, minced pork with patola or drop egg or spring onions, which were by the way very often occasions as in --"once in a blue moon,"  but on most days, this dish is originally with sardines. Yes! Youngstown sardines (green colour) the one's so popular in its time...there you go, now I revealed one of our family's hidden treasures =D, ssshhhhh, I hope my siblings might not read this post =D.

    Indeed, life is very tough during those times that we need to be contented on what is on our dining table.  Though, you call it so "poor--ish", but we call it a blessing--for we have food for the day! Well, that's how life is, we would never be here now if not for those blessings!... I am starting to be nostalgic so before I may reveal more of our "hidden treasures =) here is the soup of the day...

Chicken Inasal

We had chicken on our lunchdate few days back and I still have chicken legs in the fridge. There is no best recipe than to cook these leggies appropriately...

BAKED CHICKEN INASAL

1.2 kls or about 6 pcs whole chicken legs

Marinade:

2 c apple cider
2 whole garlic (chopped)
3 thumb size ginger (grated)
1/3 c Annatto Oil or more
6 stalks lemongrass (pounded)
3 tbsp rock salt or 1/2 c fish sauce (patis), or more up to your preference
black pepper (coarsely ground)
2 tsps ground black pepper

Bread Pastel

Just as I posted the basic bread dough, I am waiting for my dough to rise and in few minutes I will be turning it into bread pastel.  Everyone is asking me about bread pastel and as I mentioned it to Bart he said: what bread pastel?... hehehe I totally forgot how he missed that pastel in 2009 and he even asked me to make one but unfortunately he is always left with nothing everytime I make one, so hopefully this time a piece can wait...

Basic Bread Dough

Since we started baking or should I say bread--ing in 2009, I laid my eyes on bread then I shifted to cakes and now back to bread-- ing again.  Seeing how breadtalk  transform doughs into spectacular ways inspire me.  So now, back to basic...

I will give you a basic dough recipe which you can use into generic breads like  rolls, pandesal, spanish breads, bread with fillings and even ensaymada.

So if you are looking for bread that tastes like breadtalk here it is--

BREAD DOUGH 

Ingredients: 

A. 
     240 g  Breadflour
       60 g  All-purpose flour
       40 g  Sugar
         5 g  Instant yeast

B. 
         1 pc     Whole egg
      150 ml   Fresh milk

C.   30 g  Unsalted butter


Procedure:

1. Place A in a bowl (stand mixer). Using dough paddle (hook), blend the ingredients until  incorporated. Then add B and knead for 5 minutes. This is how it would look like after 5 minutes-- 

Kneading a rough dough after ingredients A+B are incorporated 

2.  Add C and knead for at least 15 minutes, it will look like a glossy dough and elastic like this ...

After adding the butter, dough is glossy like this

Elastic dough

3. Roll dough into a ball, return to the mixing bowl and cover with cling wrap.
Then, proof dough for 1 hour.  

Proofing for an hour

This is how it looks like after an hour

An hour is just enough to double the size of the dough.

Afterwards, punch dough at the center, take it out of the bowl and divide it into 30 grams each and mould as desired. 

4.  Place the moulded dough on a baking tray lined with parchment paper and let it rest for another hour before baking.

Brazo Frozen Delight

We (Rochelle and Marilyn) barely see each other since our good friend Mhai and her family left Singapore in June. Today, lunch was never the same, of course, with one friend away, one cup of laughter is missed.  Though she's away, this dessert brought her to our lunch date. Ate Mhai loves ube, so I decided to make ube dessert with a twist!

I am not a fanatic of brazo nor sans rival, but its not bad baking one, once in a while.  And the theme for the lunchdate is "brazo mo brazo ko rin!"

So from Singapore to New Zealand.... a dessert for you!