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New Year’s Eve noche buena must have a fruit salad on the dinner table. The most popular fruit salad is the Buko salad. The popularity of fruits during New Year’s Eve celebration is part of the tradition to bring in good luck, fortune and prosperity. Today, I will hie off to the grocery to buy ingredients for my fruit salad. Here is my recipe.

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Posted: December 28th, 2008 under Christmas, Filipino Food, Noche Buena, Recipes, desserts.
Comments: 5

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To all the 1600 plus readers and subscribers of Pinoy Food Blog, I am grateful for your visit. I hope you have somehow gotten a few tips from my family’s Food Blog. I am amazed at the growth of this blog and at first I wasn’t that diligent in updating this blog. However, when I saw the growth of subscribers, I paid more attention. It is a good feeling to share old fashion tradition, treasured recipes and tips from me to you.

My family and I would like to wish you all the best of the season whether you celebrate Christmas or not. From our home to your home, I want to spread some cheer through our Noche Buena.
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Posted: December 25th, 2008 under Noche Buena.
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Our Noche Buena is never complete without the hot tsokolate made from the native Tablea (cacao chocolate). I often visited my great grandmother in Cebu and her past time involved making tablea. The fragrant aroma is something that can never replace all those Starbucks frapucciono or chocolate drinks from fancy coffee shops. However, tablea is best prepared using a batirol and a tsokolatera so the consistency is smooth. A batirol is a wooden whisk used to mix tablea (a block of pure cocoa) and water into a thick, grainy, hot chocolate drink. The tablea and water are mixed in a cast-iron pitcher called a tsokolatera. Like a kawali or wok, a tsokolatera (Chocolatera or Chocolate Pot) performs better as it ages.

I made a cup of hot chocolate drink the other day with my trusty helper, Diding. Here is the proportion.
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Posted: December 24th, 2008 under Noche Buena.
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I normally cook Creamy Carbonara but here is a recipe for those that can’t stand creamy pasta sauce. Here is the traditional Spaghetti Carbonara recipe which tastes just as heavenly as creamy carbonara.

Spaghetti

500 grams spaghetti
6 quarts salted boiling water
1 tablespoons vegetable oil

1. Add spaghetti noodles to salted boiling water, bring water back to a boil.
2. Cook spaghetti until Al Dent (barely tender) about 6-8 minutes (Tasting is the only way to test doneness. Never overcook pasta)
3. Add oil during the last 2 minutes. To keep spaghetti from sticking together wen it is drained.
4. Drain but leave hot, ready to use.

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Posted: December 19th, 2008 under Pasta, Recipes.
Comments: 12

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One of the dishes I prepared for our last Christmas day lunch in our old home in Makati in the year 2005 was Chicken Cannelloni. The young ones particularly raved the rich creamy Chicken Cannelloni. The recipe came from my sister, Lorna who modified it many times. I forgot to take a close-up photo of the Cannelloni dish but it’s the rectangular pyrex on the table. The great thing about Cannelloni is that I can prepare it a day before , freeze it and heat it on Christmas Day itself. It takes the stress away from cooking so many dishes in one day.

Cannelloni usually refers to rectangular pasta sheets that are rolled with a filling. However, sometimes the pasta dough is replaced with a cooked crepe, generally 3 to 4 inches in length and once rolled, one inch in diameter. After cooking the crepe (or boiling the pasta), it is typically filled with a savory stuffing which may include ricotta cheese, spinach, and various meats. It is then covered with a sauce, typically classic tomato or bechamel sauce, although many variations exist.

(wikipedia)

My Cannelloni version uses Bechamel sauce, chicken and ready made pasta as shown below:

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Posted: December 6th, 2008 under Noche Buena, Pasta, Recipes, chicken.
Comments: 9