It’s the time of the year when one needs to plan for the holidays. As early as September, I already know what to bake for Christmas. A childhood memory that never fails to remind me of the Christmas season is Fruitcake. I used to bake a lot of fruitcake in the past but the girls never really got around to acquiring a taste for it. They preferred the Gingerbread Man Cookies because of the story behind it after I bake the first batch. That’s my then 16 year old daughter, Lauren when she helped me with my fruitcakes a few years ago. Fruitcake flavor is best when it has been aged for a few months in a cool place (preferably the refrigerator in the Philippines).

For those of you who want to bake Fruitcakes for the Holidays, here is a recipe which I call Golden Fruitcake. I’ve modified this based from my mom’s original fruitcake recipe. My Golden Fruitcake does not have a strong taste of brandy nor is it too sweet. Anyway, there’s a lot of preparation so make sure you run down the list carefully.

Here is my Golden Fruitcake recipe

Read more »

Posted: September 9th, 2009 under Baking Recipes, Cakes, Pastries & Desserts, Christmas with 12,778 views.
Comments: 5

I am not an expert when it comes to making kakanin. I rely a lot of my knowledge from my Food Preparation class back in college. The most basic of which is How to Extract Coconut Cream. However, there are packs of coconut cream that I’ve tested out for maja blanca. Sapin-sapin is a number one request from most of my readers and it took me quite a while to test this recipe but finally here it is. Remember , we will be making 3 layers.

5 cups Coconut Cream (How to Extract Coconut Cream) From 2 Coconuts
2 cups rice flour
2 cups white sugar
1/4 teaspoon powdered aniseed
1/2 kilo ube
Red Food Color
latik (How to Prepare Latik)

Bamboo steamer
Big Pan or steamer

Read more »

Posted: September 7th, 2009 under Recipes, kakanin with 8,628 views.
Comments: 1

I find it expensive to buy siomai. Don’t you? So why not make your very own siomai and freeze it? The price of Siomai alone forced me to concot my very own Siomai recipe taken from various sources. My kids love to dip their dumplings in soy sauce and calamansi mixed with chili garlic sauce. If you are a pesco-vegetarian like me, just replace the pork with chicken meat or crab meat. I usually cook it separately because the rest of the family love their siomai to contain pork. I will add the photos soon but in the meantime, enjoy cooking.

Wonton Wrapper (You can make your own wrapper or just buy them at the grocery)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 egg white
4 tablespoon lard
3 tablespoons water

1. Place flour in a bowl. Make a well in the center.

2. Add the egg white, lard and water in the center. Mix the ingredients in the center thoroughly and quickly work in the flour. Knead well.

3. Roll out thinly and cut into rounds of about 4 inches in diameter.

4. Put filling in each wrapper.

Filling
1/2 kilo Ground Pork with a bit of fat (instead of ground, diced to small pieces or chopped)
1 kilo cooked crab, shelled and chopped (or just substitute with 1 kilo ground pork)
1/4 kilo shrimps
2 tsp. sesame oil
1 tsp. rice wine
3 Tablespoons Chopped spring onions
8 Chinese dried mushrooms (soaked in hot water until softened and chopped)
1 small chopped water chestnuts or Singkamas or 1 small can bamboo shoots, drained and chopped
1 small carrot, grated
3 Tablespoons Cornstarch
2 eggs
2 Tablespoons Soy Sauce
2 teaspoon sugar
dash of black pepper
1 teaspoon 5 spice powder (if You don’t have this, see below on how to prepare the 5 spice powder or buy the McCormick Chinese Five Spice (Ngo Yong) at your favorite grocery store)

Read more »

Posted: September 4th, 2009 under Pork, Recipes, Seafood with 11,632 views.
Comments: 8

3 cups of Hearts of Palm, julienne
1 head of cabbage, julienne
1 can crushed pineapple, drained
mayonnaise to moisten (I use salad dressing because it’s less fatty with the same taste)
salt and pepper to taste
raisins (optional)

Read more »

Posted: September 1st, 2009 under Recipes, Salad with 1,613 views.
Comments: 1

Nothing beats eating tapa for breakfast. With garlic rice and fried egg, it’s a breakfast fit for anyone expecting a busy day. My beef tapa recipe is a mixture of pepper and sweetness the way I like my lean and tasty beef tapa to be. Remember to marinate overnight (two days for better absorption) so that the seasonings seep well into the beef slices.

Read more »

Posted: August 28th, 2009 under Beef, Recipes with 32,666 views.
Comments: 8

Who says cooking has to be labor-intensive? Preparing filipino dishes can entail so much preparation and if you are feeling lazy, there are alternatives like easy to cook recipes that are just as delicious. I got invited to a Dona Elena Cuisenra Club cooking demo on “Easy to Cook Recipes” at the Podium last saturday with a presentation of 3 easy to cook recipes. Even your teenage kids or siblings can prepare this pasta dish. I have prepared a similar pasta in the past and my kids loved it. This attractive dish can also be great for parties or when you suddenly have surprise guests. You don’t need to call fastfood chains to deliver food to your home.

Ingredients

1/4 cup Dona Elena Pure Olive Oil
10 pieces Garlic cloves, peeled
1 Tablespoon Chili flakes (dried)- this is optional if you don’t like spicy dishes
20 pieces Dona Elena Anchovy Fillets (you can substitute with spanish sardines)
2 cups Cherry tomatoes, cut in half
1/4 cup Dona Elena Capers, drained.
To taste salt and pepper
250 grams Penne Pasta
for garnish, parsley chopped
Read more »

Posted: August 24th, 2009 under Pasta, Recipes with 913 views.
Comments: 3

I suddenly remembered my mom’s Binangkal recipe after a recent visit to Cebu. Well, Binangkal is round , shaped from dough and covered with sesame seeds and is a popular Cebu delicacy. Here is our recipe:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup water
2 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon vanilla flavor
1 teaspoon butter flavor
Seasame seeds
Read more »

Posted: August 20th, 2009 under Baking Recipes with 1,345 views.
Comments: 1

I remember mom often baked Bread pudding for our unsold or returned stale bread. So, after making sure that the bread chosen had no molds, I would trim the sides of the bread (I didn’t want to use them) and cut them into 1/2 inch cubes.

4 cups bread, cut into small cubes
4 cups evaporated milk (I used a 1:1 ratio — that is, 2 cups evaporated milk and 2 cups water; but you can use “pure” evaporated milk so that you can have a leche flan “feel” to the pudding)
1/3 cup sugar for caramelization (for the baking pan)
1-1/3 cups sugar
4 eggs, beaten with a fork (at room temperature)
2-1/2 tbsps. margarine, melted (melt in your microwave beforehand; set aside to cool down)
1/4 tsp. vanilla (or more)
3/4 cups raisins
Optional: you can add chopped candied fruit and some nuts also. When you do this, add a little more milk to the mixture (to prevent drying due to the added ingredients).

Read more »

Posted: August 19th, 2009 under Recipes, desserts with 6,610 views.
Comments: 2

I’ve shared recipes on Torta Banawa and Torta Cebuana. My sister who is now based in Chicago shared me these torta recipes. Torta is quite a popular baked product in Cebu and all of Visayas. Here is a contribution from my sister:

My managing editor at Filipinas Magazine, Gemma Nemenzo, is rarin’ to try the Torta a la Argao. Since the Torta’s secret is the use of tuba, I’ve been putting off making this particular treat especially since it is so cholesterolific. She has the “hulmahan” or the molds — which are actually brioche molds, if you want to order them at Sur La Table. The challenge will be to find a close cousin of tuba in the US. I’m thinking about a light beer, which is slightly fermented. I’ll update you all with my experiments.

A reader shared this I would suggest instead of tuba for the torta visaya, some sparkling wine, such as ricadonna or asti spumanti, or even a sparkling rose if you dont want it so sweet. – Thanks Tony!
-
However, for those of you in the Philippines, you have no excuse. Go ahead and try this one!

This recipe was contributed by Annie Osmena Aboitiz. It is found in Nora Daza’s cookbook, “A Culinary Life: Personal Recipe Collection.”

Read more »

Posted: August 16th, 2009 under Baking Recipes with 14,588 views.
Comments: 5

I never tasted Laing Pasta until I had it for a Goldilocks event last Friday. (You might want to read my winning entry of the You’re the 1, Goldilocks where Goldilocks judged me as first prize winner). I thought it was such a novel idea, similar to the pesto pasta that we often prepare at home. It is our own version of pinoy pasta. When I tasted it though, it wasn’t that delicious as I imagined it to be. I think the laing was too dry, lacked some meat and “keso”. I imagined eating laing with “kesong puti”. So here is what I prepared at home and made my own pata laing a bit moist and added “kesong puti”

You will need:

1. Laing- To prepare laing, read my laing recipe and skip steps 4 and 5. Reduce the laing until you have the right consistency for the pasta. I am sure you have an idea on the consistency of your pasta mix.

2. Boiled Pasta noodles.

3. As a twist, use shredded “kesong puti” or cottage cheese instead of the usual cheddar cheese or parmesan cheese.

4. When serving the Laing pasta, serve the laing and pasta separately so one can choose to decide the amount of the laing or pasta.

Posted: August 12th, 2009 under Coconut Milk, Pasta, Recipes with 760 views.
Comments: 2

Bam-i is a noodle dish that we ate as kids growing up in Cebu. It is a Visayan dish as I’ve never seen it serve here in Manila. I love the two kinds of noodles: vermicelli and the egg noodles. It’s sad that my kids don’t really like the combination of the noodles. I think the taste is so divine and different from the usual pancit guisado. Timing is important so as not to overcook the egg noodles. Usually the vermicelli or sotanghon is cooked first before the egg noodles are added. I’ve innovated this recipe to include Filipino sausage which you can buy in the groceries. It gives a more smoky flavor to Bam-i.

Here is my recipe:

Read more »

Posted: August 9th, 2009 under Filipino Food, Noche Buena, Noodles, Recipes with 12,137 views.
Comments: 16

I am the only one in the family who loves dishes cooked in coconut milk. It isn’t often that I cook this but I like variety in our weekly set of dishes. I’ve shared Chicken Adobo with Coconut Cream that I often ate as a little girl in my hometown Cebu. I thought it was a Cebuano dish. What I didn’t know was that the Tagalog Chicken and Pork Adobo is made of coconut cream too. Perhaps, it was my dad born in Sariaya, Quezon who prodded my mom to cook this dish.

Let me share another simple recipe.

Ingredients
1 kilo chicken cut into serving pieces
1 kilo pork liempo, cut into cubes
2 cups water
1/2 cup vinegar
1 head garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups thick coconut cream (How to make coconut cream)
salt and black pepper to taste
Read more »

Posted: August 6th, 2009 under Coconut Milk, Recipes, chicken with 2,336 views.
Comments: 2