Lotus Glutinous Rice (Lo Mai Gai)

My kids love the movie Coco that after watching it they've been singing "Remember Me" at any time. They specifically mentioned Nov 2 as the feast of 'Dia de Muertos" a holiday in Mexico celebrating the "Day of the Dead." Although they have no cravings on the mexican tamales, or calavares de azucal nor calabaza en dulce, we have customized the food in commemorating our loved ones -- thru something sticky, savoury, symbolic and cold. Which is why we had glutinous rice, dumpling and mango lemonade. Sticky, colourful deli and delicious. And becuase it was the kids special requests... they have to share the effort.  Paige is the chef and Kai is the moral support this time... So let me share this sticky rice made simple and easy as compared to the real tedious preparations--

Lotus Glutinous Rice
makes 3 parcels

Rice
2 c Glutinous Rice, washed and soaked  in plain water for at least 20-30 mins., then set aside. You do this first before you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

1 tbsp tbsp Oyster Sauce

1 tbsp Light Soy sauce

1/2 tbsp Dark Soya Sauce

1 tbsp Sesame Oil

1 head (single head) or about 1 tbsp chopped garlic

1 tbsp Olive Oil

200 ml water

Chicken Marinade

1 pc boneless chicken breast (about 200g), small cubes sliced

1 pc lean pork (about 200 g), thinly sliced

1/2 tbsp Oyster Sauce

1/2 tbsp Dark  Soya Sauce

 tbsp Shao xing wine (chinese wine)

1 tbsp  Corn Starch

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

***Slice the meat as directed and place in a bowl. Add all the marinade ingredients and marinate the chicken while you continue to prepare the other ingredients.

For Sautéing

2 tbsp Olive oil

I single head Garlic, chopped

1 1/2 tbsp Dried shrimps (if you don't have this it's ok)

1 1/2 tbsp Fried shallots ( if you don't have this its' still ok)

Slices of mushroom ( your preferential amount) if you are using whole shitake mushroom, then 3 pcs of shitake- one pc for each parcel.

>>> Other ingredients that you can add which i didn't as per request of kids not to include these..

3 half inch slices of chinese sausage

3 pcs of whole salted egg yolks

3 cubes of turnips

Wrapping:

3 pcs of lotus leaf (thoroughy washed, and rinsed with warm water), set side

How to do it?--

Place oil in the wok over a medium heat, when hot enough add garlic and stir fry.

Add marinated meat and stir fry.

Add dried shrimps and mushrooms. This time you can add the other ingredients >>.

Stir fry for few minutes.

Remove from heat  and transfer in a bowl and set aside.

In the same wok, without cleaning this up, add the oil.

When hot, add garlic and stir fry until slightly brown.

Then add  glutinous rice and stir.

Add the sauces and lastly add water.

Sauté until the rice absorbed all the water.

When done, remove from heat and set aside.

Assembly:

Divide your cooked glutinous rice into 3 and each part divide into half.

Open 1 pc of lotus leaf, cut if you need to, just make 1 sheet out of it.

Then brush the center of the leaf with oil the, where you will place the rice.

Place 1/6 of cooked glutinous rice on the center of the leaf.

Then top it with 1/3 of the cooked meat.

Then cover it with 1/6 of the cooked glutinous rice.

Fold the right leaf over your rice. Followed by the left leaf.

Then fold the leaf in front of you over the rice and finished it up with folding the back leaf

over the rice towards you....Your finish product is a wrap that looks like a parcel.

Secure with kitchen twine and ready to steam.

Steam for one and a half hour (1 1/2 hr). 

I used the electric steamer for less monitoring.

(You can use the traditional bamboo steamer to make it authentic)

Serve steaming hot with caution.

 

Almond Caramel Popcorn

The corn that popped--- popcorn!

It's an all time fave especially for movies and parties, and since the festive season just started with the Trick or Treats, I have decided to share a simple remedy to an instant,  not too exciting microwaveable popcorns. You may want to try this, so simple with just few steps that are not that complicated, but this will need an oven to make it more exciting so here we go--


Almond Caramel Popcorn

What you need...

1 bag (150g) Almonds (ready to eat  baked or roasted almonds)
1 bag of microwaveable popcorn (microwave as directed)
When done  spread on a baking tray lined with parchment for easy cleaning and spread the almonds on the popcorn.
Then set aside.

Caramel

100 g unsalted butter

1 c brown sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp baking soda

On medium heat, place butter, sugar and salt in a pan and let the butter melt.

Then add sugar and salt mix until well dissolved. 

Let it boil until no sugar granules are seen. 

Remove from heat and add the baking soda and vanilla.

Mixture will create a bubbling light brown solution.

Continue mixing for about a minute then RTU.

Assembling:

Pre-heat the oven at 175 degrees.

Pour (in a stream) the caramel over the popcorn and almonds.

Then mix to cover the popcorn and almonds with caramel.

Place the tray with popcorn and almonds inside the oven and bake for 15 minutes ( 3 times) every interval, take it out and mix for an even baking of caramel.

When done, transfer on a serving bowl and serve with caution.

Note: You can use any nuts you like and colour or flavour your caramel at your preference.

Sit down, relax, see a movie and pop these corns in your mouth! 

UBE (Purple Yam) DODOL

After the customary pastil... now here comes my long overdue Dodol... they are supposed to come together when i made pastil but my ingredients were not complete so dodol has to wait until now☺️😋, finally. 

I used to eat “Dudul, Dudol or Dodol” way back in my younger years when my Mamang brought me to several “Kanduli(s) ”(a Maguindanaon  term for traditional salu-salu accompanied by rituals and prayers) or thanksgivings, weddings or even simple celebrations of birthdays in our muslim communities. Dodol is one of my favorite delicacies prepared for those special occasions. A purple sticky delicacy made of milled purple glutinous rice and jaggery (palm) sugar, i can't remember our local name for this special brown sugar used for local delicacies. Anyways...

While cooking this delicacy, I interestingly realized that dodol is just before my nose all this time. Several years of craving food from places we've been to blinded us of the opportunities to explore, learn and integrate with the local food similar to what we had before and one of that is Dodol. 

Dodol is a very sticky, thick and sweet delicacy made of glutinous rice and sugar (palm sugar specifically called jaggery). It is commonly found in Southeast and South Asia and is very popular in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Brunei, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and even south India. In Muslim Communities, this Dodol is served in festivals and families take pride in making it. So it's one of those occasions of creating or renewing the bonds between families over a huge wok and a long laddle.  So, this dodol is just right in front of me all the time and i have not noticed it because it is wrapped in a thin plastic and comes in deep brown (original), green (pandan) and light brown (durian) colours and flavours.

All this time i have been craving for the dodol wrapped in banana leaves that look like a "suman" log and to my surprise recently, the dodol in the province becomes less and less popular and now comes wrapped in a thin plastic too. Things changed. 

In my desperation, i have decided to look for recipe and make it according to my preferences... purple and wrap in banana leaves. The only challenge i have is that-- i don't have the milled (powdered) black glutinous rice available in the market so I made my own --- purple one! ;-) 


 UBE DODOL
makes about 6 (half ft)  logs 

Ingredients:

200 g palm sugar
1/2 c fine or caster sugar
1/2 c water
1 tsp ube flavouring 

Place everything in the pan and warm under low heat to dissolve the sugar granules. Set aside.

In another bowl, mix to dissolve the following:

1 c powdered glutinous rice
1 tbsp rice flour
2 steri pack coconut cream (200 ml each)
1/2 c water
Add drops of violet coloring according to your color preference. More drops means more intense purple color.

Then pour the mixture in the cooled sugar  then strain. When done, place in the non-stick pot and cook over medium heat with constant stirring. This will only take you about less than 10 minutes. Cooking is done when you can scoop the entire mixture with the laddle/ spoon.

Remove from the heat and cool.
RTU.

You can either wrap it in greased banana leaves, or place it in a greased container. Your choice.

Baked Prosciutto Wrapped Apple Stuffed Pork Loin with Strawberry Sauce

Kids love food. But between my two kids, my daughter is the picky one. Believe me in her younger years she's hard to please so feeding her was a challenge. I think feeding a toddler is one of the big challenges of most Moms. She was raised as a "gerber kid" as i played safe all the time due to her allergy history. Or what i thought could be her allergic reactions to practically anything. One time, scrambled eggs become her favorite. She eats nothing unless its a scrambled egg. My thought -- giving her what she likes will be a step to wean her. So I fed her srambled eggs (every day) with no complaints nor dislikes and we were into this for quite sometime. This raised a big concern for me.

So you see, food explorations is not my thing, though i love cooking since i learned how to. Yet with my daughter (given that i was not into web world at that time) child-rearing information and updates and any idealistic guides on feeding (raising) your child was not my thing too. My knowledge was based on previous experiences of the Moms ahead of me, so I played hard on the safe side (always) and I despise running to the ER(hospital). My son on the other hand is a food lover. Ever since he learned to eat, he eats everything. Yes! you read me right, he still a baby but he eats grown up food. I learned my lessons with baby bottled food, so with my son, baby bottled food is a NO! Because he always sits with us during meals, he explores grown up food until one day, he never liked any of the "baby food" that i made for him. He abandoned his infant milk voluntarily and he prefers our food instead. This made it easy for me though 😁.  

As they are growing up, this allergic thingy with my daughter never developed. Thank goodness! Then i started from a clean slate. Beginning with our "own food culture" -- the usual filipino food that we get used to. At the start, there were dislikes. But given that travelling started to be in our menu, I begun to sort  of "educate them" by incorporating travel with food, and an explanation that should they become picky, they will go hungry and will never enjoy any of our trips. Their favorite food may not always available at the place we'll visit so its best if they will try eating variety now and be flexible with food on site.

As we go along,  i kept reminding my kids that food exploration is always part of every trip. For my daughter, it's a step for cultural integration. For my son, he'll never go hungrey😂. And they will appreciate the place more if they know the food, and of course we'll never leave the place hungry, something to bank in their (our) memory.

Kids now get used to varieties. They never complained about food rather give their critique instead so I will know which recipe worth keeping and which one is on the trash 😊. Now you know this one is for keeps!


Ingredients:

1 pork loin (you can use beef or chicken)
about 4 slices of Prosciutto (you can use turkey bacon or simply bacon)
Apple stuffing
Strawberry sauce


Apple stuffing:
1 apple sliced (cubes)
1 small onion
EVOO
pinch of salt
minced black pepper

Place EVOO on a pan then sauté onion. Add apples til half done.
Add pinch of salt and some black pepper.
Remove from heat, cool a little and RTU.

Strawberry sauce:
1 cup fresh strawberries
1/2 c balsamic vinegar
1 tsbp brown sugar or you may use honey
salt and pepper to taste

Place strawberries, balsamic vinegar  in a pan and bring it to boil.
Add sugar, salt and pepper and simmer about 5-10 minutes.
Remove from heat and place in a mini blender.
Puree and strain.
RTU.

Assembly:
Lay down your prosciutto on a tray lined with parchment or cling wrap.
Place the loin on the prosciutto and slit half open the loin to form a cavity.
Place the cooked apples on the cavity then close the loin.
Hold one end of the cling wrap or parchment and blanket the loin.
Pull the wrap loin towards you to tighten it and continue to roll over to complete cover the loin with your prosciutto. Tighten to prevent it from reopening during baking.
Remove the cling wrap if you used this and fix the parchment on the center of the baking tray without disturbing your rolled loin. Brush the loin with EVOO.
Place in a pre-heated oven at 175℃.
Bake for about 30-45 minutes depending on the size and thickness of your loin. or until prosciutto is invitingly brownish.
When done, remove from oven, blanket with foil and rest for 10 minutes.

Blueberry Caramel Bars

We are craving for Max's Caramel bars but are drooling for Blueberry Cheesecake. So I decided to make a fusion of both and created our very own Blueberry Caramel Bars.  I am happy and so the kids. They can't even stop grabbing those slices! I better save some for tonight's dessert. {wink, wink}. There is always a better way to impress our palates ;-)

Ingredients for the base:

2 eggs
1/3 c brown sugar
1/3 c caster sugar
3/4 c self raising flour or all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 c chopped cashew nuts
1/2 c fresh blueberries
pinch of salt

Caramel Topping:

1/4 c brown sugar
2 tbsp melted butter
1 1/2 tbsp light cream
1/3 c chopped cashew nuts


Procedure:

Pre-heat oven at 175 degrees
Beat eggs and add brown and caster sugar.
Add flour , baking powder, nuts and salt and mix to combine.
Add blueberries.
Place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.
Bake for 18 minutes.
While baking the base, mix the topping.
when baking is done, remove from oven and spread the topping and place it back to the
oven and broil for another 2 minutes or more until the topping bubbles and melted.

When done, remove from oven slice while hot and leave it to cool.

Pandesal Negra

It's been a while since i published another entry and today i'm breaking it.  There's so much to share but either the lack of right words or the absence of inspiration deprived me to upload one. This moment of reconnecting is the presence of the latter blame it on the food trails, trends and craze.  I may be a bit late for this but i believe i'm still one of the (pinoy) pioneers of black beauties. Presenting ULING!  yup you read me right CHARCOAL but this time its edible and healthy. Did you know that charcoal powder can treat insomnia and a good antidote for poisoning? hhhmmm interesting! So next time you'll find yourself in these situations, you know what to do (!... hahaha, NO!) get some help!

Kidding aside, charcoal trend has been in the air since few years back but i guess it wasn't that appealing to the consumers in the Philippines or should i say none of the celebrities has made it that popular. Before the trend will move to extinction, i will savour its contribution.

Have you heard of this BCP --Bamboo Charcoal Powder? I can of loving this black ingredient since i had those charcoal burgers from food chains. Honestly, there is in no way this powder had any effect on flavour nor aroma. It's tasteless but the dark look surely dominates the market aesthetically. The reason why i am lured to the band wagon of charcoal fanatics. To kick off my own food trail, i am officially introducing my Pandesal Negra -- "Black is still beautiful." 

PANDESAL NEGRA

My Personal Recipe
Ingredients: makes about 28-30 pcs pandesal

2 1/2 c bread flour + 2 tbsp bread flour (you can use wheat flour)
1 tbsp charcoal powder
1/2 caster sugar ( you can use honey of the same amount)
1/2 sachet instant yeast (about 6 g)
1 c buttermilk (DIY: 1 tbsp lemon juice placed in a 1 c fresh milk)
1 whole egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp salted butter

Method:

1. Place flour, charcoal powder , sugar and yeast in a stand mixer and mix to incorporate.
2. Add  milk, egg, vanilla and butter and mix at low speed. When the butter melted and invisible, increase speed and start counting the "at least 15 mins clock kneading."  When the dough resembles like a big ball inside the mixing bowl and the bottom of mixing bowl is clean then the dough is ready. Stop the mixer and take the dough out and form into a big ball. Return the dough into the mixing bowl and cover with cling wrap. Proof for 1 hour.
3. After dough doubled its size, punch the dough, then take it out of the mixing bowl.
4. Divide the big dough into smaller dough of about 30-35 grams each.
5. Roll into ball and dust with panko or bread crumbs.
6. Place in a tray lined with parchment paper.
7. Rest the dough for another hour, afterwards the dough is ready for baking.
8. Bake dough at 175 degrees for about 15 minutes. Since you can't see any browning, at least 15 mins is the safest baking  time.
9. Remove and serve hot with your favorite spread.

El Pollo Loco, my version

Chicken is chicken anywhere and it's an all time favourite poultry. Usually, fast foods' fried chicken is a fall back meal when time is against you. Thanks to technology, oven was invented to make a speedy cooking. It's a case of putting all ingredients together, cutting, mixing, marinating and baking. Pop into the oven and let the oven do the cooking. Set your timer and ting!!! It's done.

Chicken Blanca Pizza

Home is way much busier on school holidays than when kids are at school.  The most chaotic part of our flat is the kitchen. It's like a restaurant operating 24/7 heating and re-heating anything gastronomic. Not to mention the kids at play in preparing the ingredients and sometimes do the cooking themselves. My 3 and a half year old boy is the most persuasive Sous Chef, demanding to be in charge. It's like a factory, dust of flour everywhere, water on entire counter top, ingredients on the floor... Yeah, it's crazy but i would rather have it this way than having a quiet- peaceful home. For me, home is not a home when the sound of a drop of needle on the floor is deafening. ;-)

Pecan Cinnamon Roll

It's been a while since I posted my recipe not that i don't have anything to post it's just that before I can make the write up here comes another recipe...and another .... and another one. And finally, i would end up publishing only the latest recipe I made... Uh-Oh!   Just like this baby-- which I made a week ago and i just realized I haven't press the enter button-- (hahahah) But anyway, I'm back and so is my kitchen. So let's get started.

Bread Pudding

     Recently, Paige loves hanging around with me in our modest kitchen and I remember when I was her age, even earlier, kitchen is my favourite place especially when somebody is cooking---  mostly my brothers and our papang (apologies to my two sisters who were always outnumbered in many ways, ssshhh, but on the lighter note, they don't get to do dirty kitchen  clean-up on the side, Yey!)  My ultimate motive then being in the kitchen is not to learn how to cook but  to get the first taste and the first bite! As they say, early bird catches the worm! Anyway, so much for nostalgic moments. 

      Paige got her first cookbook last Sunday and picked her first baking dish. She was so curious about the names of the dish and how does it taste like so she decided to pick one and bake it. But looking at the ingredients she's  a little bit unconvinced as how would it taste then she decided to search in my cupboard and made some tweaks... tadah! she made her own recipe and it turned out delish so I am sharing her recipe inspired from this book ...

BREAD PUDDING
makes 8 medium size ramekins

Ingredients:

8 slices of Bread (Loaf)
2 tbsp melted unsalted butter
200 ml whipping cream
200 ml fresh milk
2 whole eggs
1 1/2 tbsp sugar cinnamon
1/3 c caster sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
icing sugar for dusting

Baking Method:

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees with fan.
Manually cut the bread slices into small pieces and place on a ramekins. One slice for each ramekins. Press the bread into the ramekins if you must. Place ramekins on a baking tray.
Next, manually whisk all the ingredients in a bowl except for the icing sugar.
Pour pudding mix into each ramekins until all the bread cuts submerged.
Let it stand for 30 minutes or while waiting for the oven.
Then dust the puddings with icing sugar and
When oven is ready,  place the tray of ramekins into the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until pudding is lightly brown on top.

Serve hot with tres leches on top or just serve it plain and warm like what we had immediately after we took it out from the oven. The top is crunchy and sweet!

Enjoy the goodness of this simple pleasure!

Ribs BBQ

One of the favourites... No longer aiming for outdoor grilling when indoor is possible.
I would like to share this recipe to all who wish to go baking and enjoy a greater satisfaction of sumptuous meal than what the best rib restaurants can offer...


PORK BBQ RIBS

Ingredients:

1-1.5 kg ribs

 Marinade:
1/2 c brown sugar
1 tbsp paprika
1 big onion minced
1 whole garlic crushed and minced
1 tbsp salt
1/2 tsp coarse ground pepper
3/4 tsp ground black pepper

Note: you can use powdered garlic and onions but i like mine natural so i use fresh G&O.

Mix all ingredients and dry rub over the ribs.
Cover the ribs in foil and place in ziplock.
Let it stand in the fridge overnight or at least 4 hours
before baking.

BBQ Sauce:
1/2  can coca-cola
1 c tomato ketchup
1/4 c worcestershire sauce ( the silver swan is the best, but Lea & Perrins will do)
1/2 c smokey steak sauce (has to be with smokey sting)
1/4 c light soy sauce (LKK)
1/4 c brown sugar
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tbsp lemon juice
1/8 c EVOO

Place all sauce ingredients in a pan except EVOO, then simmer until thick.
When thickened, add EVOO and heat up for a minute.  Cool and ready to use.

Baking:
Pre-heat oven at 350 deg with fan ( 175 deg).
Remove ribs from the fridge and let it stand under room temperature for about 30 minutes.
Take the ribs, dust away the granulated onion and garlic.  Place it on a baking dish then cover the entire dish with aluminum foil making sure it does not touch the ribs to prevent it from sticking to the foil.
Bake for 45 minutes. After which, uncover the dish and baste the ribs with BBQ Sauce then return it back in the oven. Bake uncovered for another 45 minutes with constant basting every after 15 minutes until the ribs is nicely browned but not dry. When done remove from oven then cover cooked ribs with foil for about 15 minutes before serving. Giving it a rest under foil will keep it moist.

Enjoy with your favourite rice, bread with salad, pickled vegetables and fresh fruits.

Bon appétit! ;-)