Kutsinta will forever have special place in my heart. It was the first product that inspired my mom’s Sally’s Bake Shop in 1966. She had seen mothers buying kutsinta after a movie. An idea soon hit her. Why not make my own kutsinta? Here is a kutsinta recipe similar to mom’s.

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups rice flour (substitute with all-purpose flour)

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

2 cups water

1 teaspoon white lihia or lye (or potassium carbonate solution)

1/4 teaspoon yellow coloring

2 tablespoons white sugar

Topping: freshly grated coconut or cheese

Directions

1. Caramelize the white sugar with one cup water in a saucepan. Cool.

2. Once the mixture in number 1 is cooled, add the rest of the ingredients except toppings. Mix well and strain the ingredients using a strainer.

3. Prepare muffin pans by brushing with butter.

4. Steam for 20 to 30 minutes or or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

5. Add more water to the steamer if needed.

6. Just before the kutsinta is cooked, add grated cheese on the top (optional)

7. Remove from the muffin pans and serve with freshly grated coconut.

Posted: July 25th, 2010 under Recipes, kakanin, kakanin, suman, native rice cakes with 11,657 views.
Comments: 1

Now a word from this blog’s sponsor.

Let’s all take a break. Allow me to share something I do whenever I take a break from the kitchen. I drink iced tea.

I drink iced green tea because it is refreshing on the mind and body. It is that perfect perk-upper that helps take away the stress and keep me right on track. I don’t settle for just any green tea drink. Real Leaf Green Tea is stocked in my pantry every weekend because I know it is made from natural green tea leaves that is deliciously blended with the natural sweetness of honey. The Honey Apple, Honey Lemon and Honey Lychee flavors add variety to my choices for the week.
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Posted: July 25th, 2010 under Site News with 51 views.
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During the Singapore food festival 2010, I had the pleasure of meeting the Heavenly chefs (Mr Sin Leong and Mr Hooi Kok Wai of Dragon Phoenix and Red Star Restaurant) to showcase three very authentic and old school Cantonese dishes not popularly found today in menu menus like the Shunde Wild Pheasant , the Deep Fried Golden Pearls and a good old traditional braised duck. These recipes are not for beginners but of course you can try them.

Origin of the traditional braised duck

In Canton province of China, during festivals such as Cheng Ming, harvesting, etc., people used to gather in the ancestral hall to celebrate and thanks their ancestors for blessings given.

On such occasions, foods such as roast duck, roast meat, chicken etc., were brought as offerings. After some prayers, all these foods were placed into a big pot and stewed into a pot-luck delicacy where people gather around sharing the joy of the occasion.

Such practices initiated the creation of the famous Cantonese Dish “Peng Cai”. The “Traditional Braised Duck” is one of these “Peng Cai” dishes which uses duck as the main ingredient.
Besides offering a harmonic combination of textures and flavors, this dish has a symbolic cultural significance as it symbolized unity and the sharing of joy. In the 40s, this dish was “migrated” together with a group of Cantonese immigrant into Singapore and became a popular dish in Chinese banquets.
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Posted: July 20th, 2010 under Asian Cuisine with 372 views.
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What I love about attending the Singapore Food Festival (July 16 till July 24, 2010) are the cooking demonstrations by the chefs. Not just your ordinary chefs, mind you. Mandarin Oriental Singapore hosted a cooking demo with celebrity chef Eric Teo. He is so funny as he interjects wit and humor every now and then to the demonstration. We were so honored with his presence because he is the president of the Singapore Chefs Association. Here is a simple recipe that you can even cook and the taste is so distinctly Asian that you will just love it. Sesame oil is an ingredient I often use in my Asian cooking.

Ingredients:

2 x100 grams. beef tenderloin fillet, season with salt and pepper
100 grams spring onions sliced
100 grams corn oil for cooking
100 grams sesame oil
30 grams sliced ginger
30 grams sesame seeds toasted
50 ml kikoman
100 grams water
50 grams honey

Braised daikon as base (Daikon is a long white radish: a long sweet white radish used in Asian cuisines. )
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Posted: July 18th, 2010 under Beef with 523 views.
Comments: 1

Crab Omelet is one my favorite omelet dish. With crab meat available in the groceries, it’s easier to prepare now. My mom used to prepare this by boiling the crabs and flaking the crab meat. The top shell is saved for filling in the crab meat. Anyway, this recipe is just plain crab omelet or tortang alimasag. A very simple dish.

Ingredients

1 cup flaked crab meat (you can buy this at the frozen section of the grocery)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon constarch
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon refined salt
2 tablespoons oil
1/4 cup shredded onions
6 cloves garlic, crushed
2 peeled potatoes, finely diced
1/4 cup shredded celery
5 eggs

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Posted: July 2nd, 2010 under Recipes, Seafood with 3,272 views.
Comments: 1

One all-time favorite breakfast menu I love is eating fruits along with Banana bread and cottage cheese. One thing great about Banana bread is that it contains fiber and that’s what we all need to start a day. Why not have banana bread for breakfast. Baking Banana Bread is so easy even your teen-aged kids can do it. This was the first recipe my daughter baked. Try it

Ingredients:

3 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 cup butter
2 2/3 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tsp. vinegar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups mashed bananas (lacatan variety- You can even use super-riped bananas)

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Posted: June 23rd, 2010 under Baking Recipes, Cakes with 4,281 views.
Comments: 6

The perfect chocolate cake has just the right amount of that chocolate-ness and fudge icing. I often bake this cake during birthday celebrations. Sometimes my relatives order this cake but I avoid baking for profit. I bake out of love.

Here I will share the cake recipe and the fudge icing.

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Posted: June 15th, 2010 under Baking Recipes, Cakes, Pastries & Desserts with 39,364 views.
Comments: 58

Before Jollibee or even Tropical Hut came out with the Filipino version of the Italian Spaghetti, there was Makati Supermarket’s spaghetti sold in their coffee shop in the early sixties. This is probably how the sweetish Filipino spaghetti evolved. A popular American blogger once commented that our Jollibee spaghetti tasted horrible. It must have seemed different from Italian spaghetti since the latter is sour. Filipino spaghetti has sweet sauce.

Filled with vienna sausage, ham strips, ground beef and grated cheese, the sauce of Makati Supermarket’ spaghetti is sweet with a tinge of spiciness. When I was in college during the mid-seventies, my dorm-mates and I would travel all the way from the UP campus to Makati Supermarket in Ayala. The supermarket does not exist anymore. These days you can eat their spaghetti at Cash and Carry Supermarket along , President Osmena Highway (South Superhighway) near Buendia Makati City and Makati Supermarket in Alabang.

A reader pointed out to me that some evidence of an even earlier birth of the “pinoy spaghetti” exists in the memoirs of Gen Douglas McArthur (yes the “I shall return guy”). I am not able to pull the line verbatim but it went mostly like this:

this sauce, so sweet on spaghetti, hardly seems like spaghetti sauce but it is good.

Through the years, I developed my own Filipino-Style Spaghetti Sauce. If you are in a hurry, you can always buy those ready-to-use Filipino Style Spaghetti sauce sold at the supermarket. But let me tell you, there is nothing more srcumptious than cooking spaghetti sauce in your own special touch. Here is my recipe which you can always innovate.

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Posted: June 11th, 2010 under Pasta, Recipes with 24,717 views.
Comments: 13

Chicken Adobo in Coconut cream is my favorite adobo of all time. It’s actually a comfort food, a childhood memory. Sadly, I don’t often cook this because two family members don’t really like dishes with coconut milk. This is actually simple to cook. If you don’t have time to prepare coconut milk, just use the ready to mix coconut milk powder at the grocery.

Ingredients

1/2 head garlic, minced
1 medium onion, sliced
1 1/2 kilos chicken cut into serving pieces
2 tablespoons cooking oil (I prefer Pure Olive Oil)
2 cups thin coconut cream (Check on how to prepare coconut cream or buy 2 packs coconut milk powder)
salt and pepper to taste
1 small green papaya (cubed)
1/3 cup vinegar
2 cups thick coconut cream (Check on how to prepare coconut cream or buy 2 packs coconut milk powder)

Procedure

1. Prepare coconut cream or if you are busy, just buy 2 packs coconut milk powder and follow instructions.

2. In a saucepan, saute garlic, onion and chicken pieces in hot oil.

2. Pour thin coconut cream and simmer for a few minutes.

3. When chicken is almost done, add the papaya, vinegar, salt and pepper.

4. Bring to boil and add the thick cream.

5. Cook 5 more minutes until sauce thickens.

Posted: June 2nd, 2010 under Coconut Milk, Recipes, chicken with 17,439 views.
Comments: 3

What do you associate puto with? When pork was still part of my diet, I associated puto with diniguan. I dunk the puto on the thick sauce, then eat it together with the pork pieces. Another puto memory is pairing it with hot chocolate drink. Puto is a great pairing food with many of our Filipino dishes. Puto is very easy to make. You can even use all-purpose flour instead of rice flour if one cannot find the latter. In this recipe, we will use all-purpose flour

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour (or better yet rice flour)
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups thick coconut cream (the first press. See How to Extract Coconut Cream or you can use coconut powder and follow instructions to make thick cream)
1 teaspoon aniseed

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Posted: May 19th, 2010 under Recipes, kakanin with 14,674 views.
Comments: 3

Preparing Suman sa Ibus is so easy. It’s the wrapping of the rice mixture which takes so much time. Yet it is all worth it. How I love the mild flavor of the suman. The delightful combination with ripe yellow mangoes and hot tsokolate is heavenly.

Ingredients

4 cups sticky rice or malagkit
3 cups thick coconut cream (here’s how to prepare Thick Coconut Cream)
1 Tablespoon salt

Tube-like containers made of young coconut leaves shaped into cylinders about 3 centimeters in diameter and 10 centimeters long. I can’t explain how to prepare the ibus for the suman but here is how to prepare from this blog

1. Fold the end of the buri leaf by 1 ½ inches.
2. Fold the bottom edge into a triangle.
3. Start rolling up the buri leaf in an
overlapping manner.
4. Roll up the buri to make a tube.

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Posted: May 5th, 2010 under Recipes, kakanin, kakanin, suman, native rice cakes with 7,970 views.
Comments: 2

I don’t do all the cooking at home. Sometimes it could be my husband, or on rare occasion, my daughters or my trusted helper, Diding. When I took a vacation in the USA, Diding took care of the cooking while I was away. She also paid my bills and basically run the house while my husband was at work. Paksiw na Pata is a simple dish which she cooked the other night. Of course, she can cook more complicated ones which I have taught her. I take pride when my helpers cook better than me or start a restaurant business once they leave my employment. One of the yayas of the kids has now her own small restaurant using the dishes she learned from me. Diding isn’t really fond of cooking but I prodded her to learn. Once she cooked the paksiw na pata, I told her to set it up on a white plate so I could take a photo.

I was pleased to note that she carefully placed the bay leaves and saba banana on the front. Maybe she had seen me take so many photos of our dishes that she already knew how to position the meat. Anyway, this entry is for Diding.

Here is the Paksiw na Pata recipe:

Ingredients

1 large pata or pig’s feet (around 1 kilo)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup vinegar
1/2 head garlic, crushed
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar (reduce if white sugar)
1/2 cup dried banana blossoms soaked in water
1 bay leaf
4 saba bananas, fried

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Posted: April 18th, 2010 under Pork, Recipes with 20,332 views.
Comments: 6