bounty, cagey.

deposited at my front doorstep the other day: a giant carton of cherry tomatoes and bittermelon. whooo! what to do, what to do.

*

also deposited: a bunch of eggs. i have to laugh whenever i buy those cage-free, free-range, battery-free, antibiotic-free, donovan-listening eggs at the market. i have a few friends with errant chickens, which are empirically without cage and battery, conforming to every stereotype about the bird you may have ever thought: they cross the road to get to the other side, they run around even with their heads cut off (srsly? so freakin' weird), and are as free as. no one is actually sure where they've come from--probably another yard in the neighbourhood--but no one comes around to claim them, and certainly none of my friends actually feed them. they know how to fend for themselves, surely.

i don't really know all that much about chickens, but i was under some assumption that eggs were usually dropped in a nest or at least in a sheltered area and roughly in the same area. however, the eggs pictured above are much like all the ones collected from various folk: randomly deposited on window sills, doorsteps, flowerpots, but mostly in driveways--coral rock, conrete, brick, dirt, clay....they seem to like the open expanse and playing chicken (! ha) with the cars coming in or out. the ones out of the way are mostly left alone, because of uncertainty of age, although some folk are partial to penoy, which are fertilized eggs which fail to hatch. personally, i think it's an open invitation for snakes (leaving eggs around the yard, not the penoy per se). the driveway ones are collected and distributed for consumption. i haven't really participated in the handouts because, well, i as a lifelong storebought egg consumer, am still a bit suspect of the driveway eggs. sure they are collected pretty quickly, but temperatures reach 80˚F or more by mid-morning regularly, and i'm not the one collecting the eggs. i know i should get over it, so i've started to get my share, but only for hard boiling purposes until i am more comfortable with the idea (i'm not worried about salmonella, but i figure a cracked/bad egg is easier to deal with once boiled).

i'm sure i wouldn't be so cagey if someone told me these had come from their lovely little farm with the red barn and the cow named bessie, i should be thrilled i'm getting fresh and free ones from the lovely little subdivision with the concrete house and the car named camry.

*

almost speaking of snakes, i came home from manila at 5am, opened up the bedroom door to find a snake slithering underneath the bed. after a little bit of a freak out, i went looking for it, to find...nothing. so after a few days of careful peering and not reaching into handbags too hastily, i was happy to find one of the dogs inadvertently stepping on what i originally thought was an electrical cord but turned out to be an irate and desperate snake. mostly dead (yay dog! although she is traumatized from the incident), so it was finished off with a whack of a nine iron. before animal rights folks get after me, i have to point out that the brown tree snake is non-native to the island, invasive, and has decimated the native bird population. "ecological disaster" is not too strong a phrase. so, although i find my golf club whacking ways troubling, i also think it's necessary. the thing is...the dead snake is not same one seen slithering under the bed. #$%^.

market macaron merienda.

one of my favourite stalls in salcedo market is la cuisine francaise, which sells a very nice assortment of homemade french specialties like patés, quiches, apple tartine, pissaladiere, some lovely stews, ratatouille, and some kicking lasagne (not french, but darned good). i generally skip the majority of their baked goods because there are so many other bakeries around, but this time i picked up these absolutely ginormous macarons, one of the almond, and a chocolate one. i used to have a steady date with the macarons at bizu, but lately they haven't been up to par--always a little stale, a little sad, and the taste of some of the flavours seems to have changed. i had my doubts about the market macarons--at a little more than six inches in diameter, they are about 5 times the size of an average macaron, and maybe ten times the weight. whatwhatwhat?! robyn had a photo of maison du chocolat's version of a large macaron, which she called "the monster that eats babies" one; if that's the case, then these are the universe in which the monsters roam.

the flavour of both were excellent--not too sweet, real almond flavour coming through the almond one with a marzipan overtone, the chocolate one was a little malty, with not-overpowering ganache within. the outside had a much thicker crust than your average macaron, and the innard of the cookie was soft, almost bready. i've made macarons before, but i can't imagine that the batter i used for the small ones would turn out like these in larger scale. it seems like perhaps there is more flour or something stabilizing the meringue. if you look at the photo below, maybe you can see what i mean...?

does that look like an average macaron to you? it almost seems like a cross between a macaron and the savoiardi/ladyfingers i made for the strawberry charlotte. lighter, slightly spongy, but with that nice meringue crust and a bit of chew. if anyone has any pointers/suggestions on how to make the monster macarons, please let me know!

impromptu visit.

when will this monsoon season ever end? i was about to go mad with the sound of horrid rain, day in, day out...so i hopped on a plane, bound for manila, just for the weekend. even though it was overcast there really wasn't any rain to speak of (stupid or otherwise), but there was a nice cooling breeze. perfect for a stroll through saturday's salcedo market, again. just some scenes from the village:

katuray and bagbagkong, edible flowers


caimito (star apple), lanzones, chico, sampalok (tamarind), and bananas


cotton candy floss vendor


"dirty" ice cream


barbecued pusit (squid), hito (catfish) and bangus (milkfish), pork


roasting chestnuts


guess we know what fidel's up to these days.

happy new year!

hello! did you have a good new year? mine was sort of _____. it was actually quite a good day even though i had to go to work; but, i didn't get to celebrate, and my dinner sort of sucked. boo. i hope it's not a foreshadowing of the year to come. i wasn't able to cook anything special for the lunar new year, but did manage these tea eggs during the last half of a project runway mini-marathon. simple snack tastiness + high fashion drama = excellent evening in the banana household. :sigh:

tea eggs are a popular asian street food, prepared by simmering boiled eggs in a tea, soy sauce and spice mix. the marbling comes from a light cracking of the shell, and a long simmer time. surprisingly, even after a couple hours in the hot bath, the egg white does not become super-rubbery, and the yolk remains creamy. the flavour of the tea and spices permeates, but in a subtle way. i can't say i notice the spices all that much, but the smokiness of the tea and the light touch of salt enhance the flavour of the otherwise everyday egg. if this egg were a metaphor for how the rest of the year will be, i would say that it would be solid, sunny, with a touch of erratic glamour. i'll take it! and happy new year to you all.


tea eggs

6-8 eggs
water, enough to cover eggs

1 tsp salt
3 tbsp soy sauce
3 teabags (i used oolong)
2 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
black peppercorns
2 long strips of orange peel, with most (or all) of the white pith removed

place eggs in saucepan with water. bring to a boil. turn off heat, leave eggs in pan for 10 minutes. remove eggs from pan (save water), tap them with the back of a spoon to crack the shells, keeping the shells intact.

return eggs in water with tea, soy sauce, peel, and spices. add more water to just cover the eggs if necessary. bring back to a boil, then simmer for two hours. or, do this step in a rice cooker; after the boil, set the rice cooker to "warm" position, and leave the eggs for two hours. peel one egg as a test. if the colour isn't dark enough, leave the eggs in the simmering mix for longer, or store the (unshelled) eggs immersed in the liquid in the fridge overnight.

strawberry double cheesecake.

mamabok's request was cheesecake, here is cheesecake. two, in fact: a "rare" japanese cheesecake with puréed strawberries sandwiched between two halves of a baked japanese cheesecake, inspired by lydia's beautiful double happiness cheesecake.

both varieties employed are more commonly found in japan than the heavy new york-style cake, hence the "japanese" moniker. "rare" is just an allusion to the fact that is uncooked (as in a rare steak), just yogurt, cream cheese, strawberries and sugar set with a little bit of gelatin. i adapted a recipe from about.com for this. the baked cheesecake contains less than half the cream cheese of your average american style cake, and has a soft, silky, fluffy texture from whipped egg whites. it is because of this that it is sometimes known as a cheesecake soufflé (or soufflé cheesecake). i modded betty shimabukuro's recipe, as i actually encountered the same problems she did when trying other recipes on the web. no matter, this one turned out fine.


strawberry double cheesecake

"rare" layer:

1 package/8oz cream cheese, softened
1 cup yogurt-plain, vanilla or strawberry-flavoured, your choice
1- 1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen (thawed) strawberries, puréed
1/3 cup sugar, more if the strawberries aren't sweet
2 tbsps lemon juice
1 packet/1 tbsp powder gelatin
1/4 cup water

mix gelatin and water in a small container, set aside. put gelatin mixture into microwave and heat for about a minute. dump softened cream cheese, yogurt, fruit, sugar, lemon juice, and gelatin; mix well. pour the filling into an 8" cake pan lined with plastic wrap; spread evenly. refrigerate for a minimum of 3 hours or overnight.


baked layer:

1 package/8oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup sugar
3 eggs, separated
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 tablespoonfuls lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

preheat oven to 325˚F . place a parchment round on the bottom of an 8-inch round cake pan or springform pan.

beat cream cheese and cream together. add egg yolks, cornstarch, lemon juice, and half the sugar until smooth. beat egg whites in a separate bowl until foamy with a hand mixer. add remaining sugar and cream of tartar, beating until soft peaks form. slowly fold beaten egg whites into cream-cheese mixture, until thoroughly combined. pour into cake pan and smooth the surface. place cake pan into a larger roasting pan and place in lower rack of oven. pour enough boiling water into the roasting pan to come halfway up the side of the cake pan. bake for 40 to 50 minutes, until cake has pulled away from the pan, and a pick inserted into the center comes out clean.

cool in the pan on a rack (it will deflate), then unmold cheesecake. refrigerate for at least three hours. once cooled, carefully cut the cake in half horizontally so you have two layers. unmold the rare cheesecake and place it on top of one layer. spread a layer of strawberry jam or cut fruit, if you want. top with second baked cheesecake layer. since the baked cheesecake will have shrunk a bit, a little trimming of the middle layer will be necessary. you can serve it immediately, but i prefer to cover the cake with plastic wrap, and refrigerate so that the layers "settle"a bit.

rochers.

rochers: meringue and toasted silvered almonds in big crispy-on-the-outside, fluffy-on-the-inside-mounds. a recipe from the tartine bakery cookbook, from the tartine bakery in san francisco, ca.

miss craftapalooza suggested meringues with cream for my strawberry glut, but there was something about these that beckoned. probably the toasty loveliness of slivered almonds that don't just dot the meringue, but create a virtual haystack within--no nibble shall be nutless, i tell you. the original recipe says it makes 30 small cookies, i managed to eke out a dozen of these giganto versions. piping is recommended, even though the almond pieces will clog the tip; also, results can be unbecoming. just stick to heaping teaspoonfuls (or tablespoonfuls) and you should get something similar to a favourite golden wrapped confection. eaten out of hand, or coarsely crushed over sliced strawberries and cream, these are big rock cookie mountains i'll take over the candy version, any day.

napoleon and charlotte.

if i was a cartoon-drawing kind of gal, i would have a comic strip involving a couple named napoleon and charlotte....

per miss deborah's request: a strawberry napoleon, made with puff pastry, a grand marnier-laced vanilla bean pastry cream, and sliced fresh strawberry. adapted from yet another ludo lefebvre recipe. the most noteworthy thing about it was the absolute ease of making this, as almost everything must be done well in advance, and each component (while time consuming) is pretty easy to make. the second most noteworthy thing: it was the first time i had made puff pastry. huzzah! another thing to cross off my list! and--i am so not pulling your leg, your finger, your nothin' on this--it was insanely not difficult to do at all. i'm not saying i did a stellar job on the matter (will i ever get the hang of rolling dough out evenly? maybe there are speed bumps on my table), but even a 50% effort yields a pastry that is 150% better than your average supermarket puff pastry dough. i always thought the puff was difficult as when i'd use the frozen stuff, it would shrink too much, be too greasy, and brown unevenly; this worked like it should. anyway, i reckon that once i get the hang of it, it deserves a post of its own. the pastry cream was one of the easiest pastry cream recipes i've tried, and one of the tastiest. chef lefebvre's version included whole vanilla beans and a generous glug of bourbon--i doubled the vanilla and substituted orange-flavoured liqueur for the bourbon. this was a little runnier than i had hoped (i blame the booze), so i'll either cut down on the amount of booze, or cook the pastry cream a little longer for a firmer product.

napoleons have never been my favourite because usually the pastry is a little stale, or the pastry cream too sweet; also, arrgh, no matter how genteel you are, they are very messy to eat. this one was as fresh as it was going to get, with delicate, flaky pastry, a lightly sweetened, flavoured cream, and of course, the bounty of perfectly ripe strawberries. and yes, still a freakin' mess to eat.

and miss susan's suggestion: a strawberry charlotte, a delightful name for a cake if there ever was one. this one was made with a base and white picket fence of ladyfingers/savoiardi, filled with an amaretto-laced bavarian cream and topped with fruit. another first, making those ladyfingers, which are cookies made with a sponge cake batter, often in the shape of fat...fingers. ladyfingers! seriously, i'm built like a peasant, but even my manhands are more delicate than this. however, the cake seems not to be the least bit bothered, with billowy clouds of silky cream and vibrant berries all wrapped up in a fluffy pink-sashed party dress. again, the ladyfinger recipe from pierre herme was actually not difficult, and yes, my 50% maxim still applies. a little more practice, and maybe i can get those stubby fingers to look a lot more ladylike.

the bavarian cream was simply the ludo vanilla bean pastry cream--this time flavoured with amaretto liqueur--folded into copious amounts of whipped cream, and stabilized with a tiny bit of gelatin. plonked on top are endless amounts of sliced strawberries, but not so endless that i don't have more berry delights forthcoming....

falafel + hummus.

if i was a cartoon-drawing kind of gal, i would have a comic strip involving a couple named falafel and hummus. i'm not sure what they'd be, or what they'd be doing, but one of them would certainly be ballsy and the other one kinda wet. anyway

i love the first photo in susan's post, it makes me hungry everytime i see it. falafel, a sort of middle eastern ground chickpea or fava bean non-meat meatball, is one of those things that is relatively easy to make, but something i don't think about doing. there seems to be endless variations on the basic recipe, but i tend to like ones that are a little crunchy on the outside, creamy and a little spicy on the inside. like susan, i used an epicurious recipe, but adapted it slightly so there would be a little more flavour and maybe cook up a little quicker, as i had intended on grilling them as small patties. you know, like healthy? harrrrgh. about two seconds after pulling the grill out, i changed my mind and decided to fry them after all. the result was a zingy little number that was lightly crunchy on the outside, creamy on the inside. they fried up super-fast, so they did not become oily or greasy, so i don't feel so bad about not grilling them. the extra spices and herbs meant that these falafel were actually quite tasty on their own--so much so they never made it to their pita sandwich destination.

the hummus (hummous, houmous, who? moose?) is another adaptation of a recipe from "a year in my kitchen" by skye gyngell (like the beetroot purée). in fact, the spices and herbs are almost identical to the beet recipe, but with chickpeas as a base, the texture and flavour are still quite different. my version also has almost the same ingredients as the falafel recipe, so frankly, they aren't really that much different from each other (hey, i see my cartoon's backstory shaping up!). they are okay paired together, but as they taste nearly the same, you'll probably want to add other contrasting and complementing flavours and textures to the plate. ms. gyngell does not like to refer to this as hummus as it has so much more flavour; i absolutely agree, but 'hummus' sounds sooo much better than 'chickpea paste', so perhaps i'll just leave it as that.

falafel adapted from "my favorite falafel" recipe on epicurious

3 cups cooked chickpeas, drained
1/2 bunch flat leafed parsley, finely chopped
1/2 bunch coriander/cilantro, finely chopped
4-5 green onions, finely chopped
1 teaspoonful salt
1 teaspoonful cayenne pepper
3-4 cloves of garlic, peeled

1 teaspoonful roasted spice mix (see beetroot purée recipe)

1 teaspoonful baking powder
4-6 tablespoons flour

vegetable oil for frying

dump all the ingredients except the baking powder and flour into a food processor. process until blended, but still somewhat chunky.

sprinkle in the baking powder and 4 tablespoons of flour then pulse. check to see if the mixture holds together but isn't too sticky--if it's still sticky, add more flour.

transfer to an airtight container, and refrigerate overnight.

form the mixture into small semi-compact balls; i use a 2 oz. cookie scoop.

heat about 2-3 inches of oil to 375 degrees in a pot, fry a ball to test. add a little flour if the ball falls apart. fry 4-6 balls at once for a couple of minutes on each side, or until golden brown.


hummus adapted from "a year in my kitchen" by skye gyngell

3 cups cooked chick peas, drained
3-4 garlic cloves, peeled
1 large green or red chili pepper, depending on your preference (i like jalapeño in this)
1 bunch coriander/cilantro, chopped
1 bunch mint, leaves only
1/2 bunch flat leafed parsley, chopped
juice of 1 lemon
1 heaping tablespoonful of tahini

1 teaspoonful roasted spice mix (see beetroot purée recipe)
50 ml olive oil
salt and pepper* to taste

dump everything into a food processor or blender, process until relatively smooth (a few chunks are nice). adjust seasoning, add salt and pepper to taste.

spicy beetroot purée

beetroot purée, adapted from one of my favourite cookbooks, "a year in my kitchen" by skye gyngell. i've been trying to eat a lot more veggies, and one of my favourites is roasted beets, which are sweet, somewhat corn-y tasting, and just a gorgeous violent deep shade of purply red. all you need to do to roast them is to scrub 'em down, chuck them into a pan, drizzle some olive oil on top, cover with foil and bake them in a preheated 400˚F for about 45 minutes to an hour, until they can be pierced with a knife. i usually just eat them peeled, with a little salt and pepper, but sometimes when i've got a few left over, i play around with gyngell's recipe for a puréed spread/dip, flavoured with garlic, olive oil, fragrant spices, and tons of green herbs. the effect is not unlike a über-hummus, all sweet, silky yet spicy and just a little rough--a nice addition to any mezze plate, a vivid side dish, or even just an eye-opening spread on toast. i don't know what it is that makes people dislike beets, but maybe this recipe will change some people's mind.

beetroot purée adapted from "a year in my kitchen" by skye gyngell

3 large beets, roasted, cooled and peeled (see above) note--you can do this with canned beets (drained thoroughly), but the colour will not be quite as nice
2 garlic cloves, peeled
1 large bunch of coriander/cilantro, roughly chopped
1 large handful of mint leaves, roughly chopped
1 glug of olive oil
1 tablespoonful roasted spice mix* (see below; you can always use ground spices for this if you don't want to deal)
1/2-1 teaspoonful of cayenne pepper
balsamic vinegar to taste
1 small container of greek yogurt (optional)
salt

add the beets, garlic, herbs, spices, and olive oil in a food processor or blender. pulse/blend until a smoothly puréed. add greek yogurt if you want a super smoothy, then add balsamic vinegar and salt to taste.

*roasted spice mix

1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
25g coriander seeds
25g cumin seeds
25g fennel seeds
25g fenugreek seeds
2 cardamon pods
1-2 star anise

place a frying pan over low heat. once a clear smoke rises from the pan, add spices. stir frequently, being careful not to let them burn. when the seeds begin to pop, take them off the heat, and grind to a fine powder in a spice mill or mortar and pestle.

surprise delivery.

s just brought over a case of super-sweet strawberries from korea, about 4 pounds' worth. any baking/dessert requests?

purple pretty

purple cauliflower, which gets its lovely colour from the presence of anthocyanin, which is also responsible for the colour in red cabbage, red wine, apples, and the distinctive deep loveliness of blood oranges.

when deep-fried, the colour changes to a gorgeous bluey-purple, not unlike dame elizabeth taylor's eyes. the flavour of the cauliflower becomes quite sweet and nutty. also like i imagine the ex-mrs. fortensky to be. not to taste.

makes a great sandwich. i'm sure the ex-mrs. hilton wilding todd fisher burton burton warner has a cook or chef who does, too.

faux-lly

even though i'm still writing out my list, i may have actually completed one of the 101 things i hope to have done in 1001 days. whoo!

one of my favourite cakes is a chocolate cake sold in a gas station in manila; those of you there surely know which one i mean, polly's chocolate cake, made by polly garilao. it is dark, supermoist, chocolatey, with a pudding-like just-on-the-edge-of-too-sweet chocolate frosting; it is not a fancy cake, it's quite homey and old-fashioned, and frighteningly easy to eat. i don't really seek it out when i'm in manila because although it is a substantial 8"x8" (or so) cake, it doesn't exactly feed eight, like it should--it's more like three to four people if you're lucky, or two people hovering over the plain brown box....cake crack, i tell you. also, finding somewhere that sells it can be a chore--the only regular source (besides ms. garilao herself, of course) seems to be the shell gas station in magallanes and it's not particularly easy to transport, especially via transpacific flights.

i have about three dress sizes' worth of reasons not to look for a similar recipe, but look i did, and it was surprisingly easy to find a pretty darned close equivalent to it. i wanted a recipe with ingredients that were easy enough to come by in the philippines, low on dairy products, and somewhat older (christine mentioned she grew up eating them). i looked for traditional, quick recipes that used vegetable oil or shortening, and cocoa instead of chocolate. i tried out a few, but surprisingly the recipe that got the right colour, texture, moistness and flavour was one that i found in regan daley's "in the sweet kitchen"--a bit of a fancy-schmantzy book, but the recipe itself was passed down from her mother, and there are many variations of it around the interwebs. i had my doubts at first because she described it as chewy, and someone else called it as dense; i don't know if those are two adjectives i would use for the polly cake. still, she said it was the one cake she really craved, the one she could polish off in one sitting. hm. i knew that feeling, so the recipe looked good enough to try.

oh weeee, the recipe looked good, but the results even better--supermoist, dark, springy, yeah yeah. the secrets of the cake universe unlocked, and whilst this may not be the exact polly garilao gas station chocolate cake, it's so darned good (and yes, so darned close), it doesna matter. and yayeah, so darned easy. here's the recipe, and step by step instructions:


1. sift 1 1/2 cups of AP flour into an ungreased, unfloured 8"x 8" pan.

2. in a separate bowl, mix 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 cup white granulated sugar, one teaspoonful of baking soda, and 1/2 teaspoonful of salt. add to pan, and mix carefully with flour.




3. make 3 indentations in the flour mixture--2 small and one large.




4. add one teaspoonful of vanilla extract to one of the small holes, one tablespoonful of white vinegar to the the other, and 6 tablespoonfuls of vegetable oil to the large one. pour one cup of cool water over everything and mix well, without beating it (a few lumps are okay).


5. bake in a preheated 350˚F oven for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out relatively clean. cool before frosting.

*
some notes: make sure to use natural cocoa, absolutely not dutch-processed if you want that deep, dark colour; hershey's or ghirardelli brand is what ms. daley recommends, but i've been using valrhona because...well, why not? (edit:as manggy points out in the comments valrhona cocoa is dutch processed, which i've neglected to mention. technically, a dutch-processed cocoa is milder flavourwise, but valrhona uses a superior bean than most brands. also, technically you should adjust the leavener because of the alkali content, but as i haven't tried this cake with natural process cocoa, i can't say if it's truly a detriment.) i also prefer to bake this cake at 335˚F for 35-40 minutes. this all-in-one recipe is for a cake that will be served in the pan; if you'd like a more elegant presentation, line the pan with parchment before adding all the ingredients. or, dare to mix the batter in a bowl first (whoo).

**
also, if you want to go with a more polly-like frosting, don't do the cocoa buttercream in the link; instead, make a ganache with semi-sweet chocolate chips and heavy cream, then pour it over the cake. if you have access to it, buy semi-sweet chocolate (chips or by the block) made in the philippines by nova; it's only about 300p a kilo (about us$7), and spot on for the consistency of miss p's frosting.

***
so there, lil' keikis, i hope i have saved some of you some money, effort and grief. and no matter what your verdict may be, maybe this will become a staple of your sweet kitchen.

buta no kakuni, morimoto-style.

probably not the most auspicious post to ring in the new year of food blogging, considering i'm trying to lose weight/eat healthier, but cheeeese, look at it. 'tis beaaaaauuuuutiful, no? buta no kakuni, pork belly braised in sake and a little bit of soy sauce, flavoured with just a tiny bit of sugar and star anise, served on brown rice congee infused with spring onion oil and flavoured with a bit of dried scallop. this was modified from a recipe by masaharu morimoto from his book, "morimoto: the new art of japanese cooking." someone rather kindly mailed a copy of the book to me and like, a whole lot of other bloggers. i generally say no to the freebies because i know i'll never review them, but i heart the morimoto-san, and at the time i was broke and thought i was saving up for something, so why not? but now i'm not saving, still broke, still no review. sorry dk books person! i officially cannot be trusted with your merchandise. however, the book is lovely and i've cooked a bunch of deelish things from it.

n. e. how.

this was actually one of the last recipes i thought i'd cook from the book, but when i saw maki's lovely more traditional version of the pork dish, i really wanted to try it. she and kirk both explain there are chinese cuisine connections to the dish, as does humba, the filipino version of this dish. i haven't had humba in awhile, but i always remembered my family's version to be flavoured with star anise and ginger; morimoto-san's recipe calls for neither, but the thing i love the most about the pork is that hint of spiciness, especially from the anise, so i added two whole star anise to the final braising liquid. also, i used brown rice in morimoto-san's congee recipe instead of the usual white; the result was more texture and flavour to play against the dried scallop and spring onion oil.

this recipe is not difficult at all, but some of the ingredients can be tricky to find, and it requires a good amount of time and patience. there is an initial eight hour simmer which renders out the majority of fat from the pork, then an overnight chilling before returning it to simmer in braising liquids for an additional 2 hours. if you do the first part in a slow cooker, then chuck it in the fridge whilst at work or asleep, it's actually quite uncomplicated. the melt-in-your mouth texture and exquisite flavours make it worth the work.

funnily enough, this was the first recipe that aun and s from the wonderful chubby hubby decided to try. they've already proclaimed the recipe a favourite, so maybe you will too.

new year, new kitchen.

well, maybe not so much a new kitchen as *another* one. i've moved to a decidedly more urban dwelling when in manila, with a clean and cozy kitchen. does this mean i'll actually do some city cooking in 2008?! you and totoro will just have to stay tuned.

happy 008 everyone!

felis pasgua

felis pasgua yan añu nuebo; may you have a warm, wonderful and blessed christmas season. i'm off to manila, so i'll see y'all in the new year!

holiday indulgence.

i've been pretty good about staying away from the sweets and treats i've been baking and those that have been given as gifts, but all this running around has made me hungry! my big overindulgence this holiday has been eggs--poached, boiled, fried, scrambled, salted, you name it. it's sort of funny because during my college days i was not a fan of eggs at all, and recently i've had a bad case of mayonnaise aversion. but i've been having one a day for the past week, and i can feel the cholesterol sludging up my system, so i know i better cool it and soon. still, there's something about a warm runny yolk on a pile of hot rice, a soft-boiled egg smashed onto a chunk of buttered wholemeal toast, or egg whites with a bit of sea salt and fried minced garlic....mmmm.

so then two of my favourites: a chorizo hash with sweet potatoes and white potatoes, onion, celery and carrot, topped with a poached egg. simply chop everything up, crumble the chorizo, sautée and yr done. a little harissa adds a little complexity to the kick, but it's fine on its own.

and of course, the loco moco, made a little more luxurious with a grilled sirloin beef patty on steamed red-grained rice, topped with a fried egg and gravy made with oxtail and shank stock. after making a standard roux i whisked the hot beef stock into the mix until it became a thin gravy; i shredded some of the oxtail and shank meat, added it in and seasoned with salt and pepper. really, nothing to it workwise, but flavourwise, it's on a whole 'nother level of loconess.

gaah, where has the time gone? recipes in a bit (maybe after xmas if you'll forgive me--'tis that time of year after all)!

'tis the season.

i don't think i've ever made a fruitcake before. i've never been a huge fan of it, but i've had some that have been very good, so i'm not of the type who chucks it out of windows when one crosses the threshold--mainly because most of them are so heavy, i'm sure to kill an unsuspecting passerby. i do, however, get the urge to bake them, even though i know they are a hard sell. i brought one to the guys at the bank today and they were all like, "so what goodies did you bring us today?" and i carefully said "oh. a cake." pause. "with fruit." dingdingding! oh, the disappointment and the accusation hanging in the air! "a fruitcake?!"

yeah, well, there's really no hiding it. i can't even claim it's not like a traditional cake made with all fresh or dried fruit, or some sort of pierre herme creation. it's not lightweight, it's not soaked in tequila--it's a number-one-bona-fide-brick of butter, sugar, eggs, and fruit. i adapted a recipe from jeffrey steingarten--the other one who ate everything--that was adapted by annie over at bon appegeek; she is a hardcore fruitcake fanatic, so if she liked the recipe, and if jeffrey steingarten liked the recipe, there's a pretty good chance that i...might not. hey! like i said, i'm not a big fruitcake fan. i don't know why i wanted to make it, maybe it's some sort of sick manifestation of holiday spirit or something. (you know what? it probably is. i mean, i've been watching straight-to-basic-cable holiday movies all week--diva whose ghost of present is the bass player for duran duran? seen it. sabrina the teenage witch kidnapping the cha cha king for a family dinner? seen it. also, who's been scanning the FM dial for a chance to hear mariah carey for the fifteenth time? that day? nyahh. say what you want, it's teh awesomeest.)

so anyway. i've never read steingarten's book, don't really know the exact mods that annie did to his cake, and there's talk of some sort of "fatal flaw" in the crust. i wasn't worried too much about it, though, because the ingredients list reads like a french pound cake recipe with the addition of a lot of stuff--i can do that. the french pound cake--quatre quarts, literally "four fourths"--is made with equal amounts of four ingredients: flour, eggs, butter, and sugar; only a little variation on that, and some advice taken from one of the dozens of googled fruitcake recipes i've looked at for weeks: the addition of 3.5 pounds of fruit. yeeeeeeahboyyyy. can't mistake that for anything else then. i used a mix of dried and candied fruits, chopped them up to 1/4-inch anonymity to protect the innocent, which made the cake more like a jammy poundcake than dough studded with sugary unidentifiable lumps. walnuts added some needed texture, and like annie and jeffrey, i didn't bother to liquor it up. didn't need it. also didn't get the hard crustiness as described by both, but i baked them in smaller loaves, so the cooking time was reduced significantly; what i got was a beautifully golden, sugary-coated shell that made the cake irresistible directly out of the oven. of course, all that fruit and sugar makes it molten-hot, so perhaps you'd like to wait for it to cool completely, or even refrigerate it for easier slicing.

i know you're sceptical, but i stand by it, like i stand by mariah carey's christmas song--it's sugary, it's sweet, it's definitely seasonal, but it also has substance, quality ingredients, and darn it if it doesn't make you want to dance around the christmas tree.

oh, you humbuggers you. here's some darlene love for you then.

fruitcake

3 1/2 lbs of any combination of dried fruit and candied fruit you like--i highly suggest using a lot of citrus peel in the mix (i used 8 oz each of candied orange peel, lemon peel, and pineapple, golden raisins, chopped dates, 4 oz of finely diced candied ginger in syrup, and made up the rest with a dried fruit blend, then chopped down to 1/8"-1/4" pieces)

1 lb of nuts, your choice (i used roughly chopped walnuts)

1 lb of flour, sifted

1 lb of unsalted butter, softened

1/2 lb of white sugar

6 eggs

2 teaspoonfuls of vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoonful of salt

preheat oven to 325˚F.

in a large bowl, combine all fruit and nuts, mixing well. set aside. cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. add vanilla and salt. fold in flour until completely incorporated. mix fruit/nut mix into batter. transfer batter into well greased pans. bake until golden, and toothpick inserted in center comes out relatively clean (roughly 35 minutes for small muffins, 1 hour for small loaves, and 2 hours for large ones).

the stress of the season...

has caused my gingerbread cookies to break out in hideous, sugar-encrusted boils.

baking by the bushel.

i am at the tail end of a cookie baking marathon--mexican wedding cookies, an odd hazelnut chocolate cookie with which i was experimenting, and chocolate chippies. new to this year's lineup: bill clinton's oatmeal cookies, from chef sherry yard's "desserts by the yard." i make a lot of oatmeal cookies, and even though they don't look like much (when do oatmeal cookies ever do?), they might be some of my favourite--possibly the only favourite anything i share with the former president. they are crispy on the outside, but chewy with oats, brown sugar, and wine-soaked golden raisins (i added some dried cranberries as well) on the inside. you can futz about with the temperature and time if you want a softer, chewier cookie, but imho, they don't turn out quite so well. stick to the plan, stan, and enjoy.

menu for hope IV

three years of giving, almost $100k in total going to worthy charities. it's time for the fourth campaign, as spearheaded by the lovely miss pim. money this time goes to the UN world food programme, for the school lunch program in lesotho, africa. chez pim has all the details on who gets the money and how you can contribute. prizes galore for your generosity! you can also check out grab your fork for the asia pacific prize roundup and all the deets as well.

fa-la-la ludo's pain d'épices.

yes, it's from heem again, what of it? with the way things are going this holiday season could be a ludo christmas or a ludacrismas --it could go either way.

*

it's (eeeep!) only tweeks away from the 25th, and i'm still trying to decide what my christmas cake gift will be. truth be told, i'm not entirely sure anyone around here appreciates gingerbread, spice cakes, or fruitcake, but i so want to do one. or all. or, in the case of this ludo recipe, a spice and fruitcake rolled into one.

pain d'épices--"bread of spices"--is a specialty of the bourgogne/burgundy region of france, possibly adapted from a chinese honey cake in the middle ages to satisfy marguerite de france's penchant for honey cake, depending on what you read. a combination of ideal geography and shrewd calculations gave the burgundian dukes control of the spice trade through europe, which accounts for the exotic, redolent spices found in pain d'epices: anise, cloves, cinnamon, sometimes ginger. since chef lefebvre is from burgundy, i thought, what better source is there? (of course it has nothing to do with the fact that the cookbook is at my bedside, no not at all.)

it is a simple recipe, despite the 20 item ingredient list; the majority of those are spices, and only in small quantities. rather surprising to me, though, is that ginger is not one of those ingredients, but with fresh orange and lemon peel, star anise and cloves among them, who needs it? also unnecessary are eggs and fat--this is a dairy-free dessert. unlike many of the other pain d'epices receipts i have found, this one has candied fruit in it, making it very much a fruitcake. i substituted traditional glacé fruits with a dried fruit blend to great effect--the candied texture is still there, but with much less sweetness. there is also a bounty of pistachios, hazelnuts, and almonds within. once all the ingredients have been assembled--dry items in one bowl, wet in another, nuts and bolts to the side--it really comes down to just mixing them all and baking, in the easiest possible way. whoo!

the cake is dark, dense, moist, intensely aromatic and flavoured; a thin slice is better than a thick one to savour all the flavours going on within it. i find it exotic and appealing, very we-three-kings frankincensey and jewellike. however, the gingerbread jury thought otherwise: "omg, is that a fruitcake?! bleurgh" or "blarrgh! wtf? is there cumin in this?!" pfftpfftpfft. why, ho ho ho, yes, there is cumin in there--a mere fraction of a teaspoonful--but apparently enough to make staunch cuminyfruitycake-haters fuel up on haterade (who knew there would be so many). *sigh* i could leave out the cumin. or, get new friends. but do i really want to do either?

back to the books.

bring me some figgysomething.

okay, now that i've got the figs, what do i do with them? i've looked at a bunch of figgy pudding recipes but they all seem to call for dried figs. does anyone have a nice recipe for fresh ones (pudding or otherwise)?

name that fruit!: figs.

about a year ago, i bought a little fig tree cutting from a local growers' market. i was surprised to see it there, because i didn't think figs grew in tropical places, mainly because i never saw fresh figs in the market, nor any recipes utilizing them. the grower really didn't know anything about it, except that he had always had trees on his family's land; however, he had never actually tried the fruit, and wasn't sure if it was the same as any of the varieties sold in mainland markets or if it was some sort of asian variation.

so, i took it to my parents' house and my dad planted it in the backyard. i didn't hold much hope for it, but it grew steadily, and even managed to produce a couple of fruit sporadically over the next couple of months. i didn't really think about it much, but lately i've realized that in the past year, the tree is now over ten feet tall, and is finally yielding enough fruit to actually use in a recipe. whee! i figured it was time to actually look up what kind of fig tree it is.

i still don't know, but found another surprise: fig trees--Ficus carica--are believed to be native to western asia, distantly related to breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis Fosb.); jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam.); and chinese mulberry (Cudrania tricuspidata). it is a deciduous tree that is typically ten to 30 feet in height, but can grow up to 50 feet. the branches are soft, twisty and vine-like, spreading wide rather than tall. the leaves are bright green, fuzzy, have an easily recognizable shape and grow out to nearly a foot in length. the fruit has a thin peel of varying colours (from green to dark purple), with and interior white rind holding in a mass of gelatinous seeds. they must be left to ripen on the tree, but once picked they only last for a few days.

perhaps this fragility, along with the fact that there aren't many birds on island to spread the seed are the reason why i haven't seen them before, but i'm still surprised i haven't seen it as an ingredient in asian recipes. perhaps a little more research is in order.....

merry meringues.

yes, i know it doesn't seem like i know any other holiday-esque adjective besides "merry" but yah maybe i don't. i saw big, beautiful raspberry meringues on doc18's flickr photostream, and found them very appealing. doc18's meringues were from ottolenghi in london; i've never been, but it looks very much like a place i'd like. however, it doesn't look like i'll be getting to the uk any time soon, so again, i must make do with make at home.

upon some reflection, i've realized i don't really like meringues all that much, but i do like aspects of them a lot--fat freedom and texture mainly; that they are overly sweet and not particularly flavoured with anything, not so much. also, i wasn't very good at making them. however, with a little patience, a vat of egg whites, and some help from baking 911, i've learned some tricks for success in a humid, tropical kitchen. the main thing, of course, is to try to keep the humidity at bay, but making a swiss meringue--which cooks the egg whites and sugar before beating--allows for the sugar to melt thoroughly (no graininess or weeping--on the meringue's nor cook's part), and stabilizes the mix more for a lighter, fluffier texture. also, in more humid climates, longer oven times are necessary, but at a lower temperature--lower, slower. whoo. barry white meringues!

still working on flavour. vanilla is nice, but want more variety. for these i simply whirred some freeze-dried strawberries in a food processor to make a ruby red dust for decoration and a bit of tartness. holiday gorgeous, certainly, but if anyone has any other flavouring suggestions, please let me know!




big baked meringues, humid weather formula (aka barry whites)

2 egg whites (from large eggs)
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoonful vanilla extract
pinch of salt

preheat oven to 300˚F. over a pot of simmering water, stir the egg whites and sugar together until the sugar melts and the mixture feels quite warm (but not hot!). add vanilla and salt. take the mixture off the heat, and whisk (or use a mixer) until thick, glossy and doubled in volume. plop big blobs of the stuff onto a parchment lined baking sheet, then bake in oven for 1-1 1/2 hours. drop the temperature to 250˚F, bake for another 1-2 hours, then turn off oven. leave the meringues in oven overnight to continue drying.

makes 4 to 6 big bazonking meringues.

happy (c)hanukkah!

love that cnn. i was looking up the significance of the jewish holiday, hanukkah, which began last night after sundown (thanks, bramble!), and came across this:

During Hanukkah, Jewish people celebrate the miracle of the tiny bit of oil that miraculously burned for eight days. This miracle is remembered by lighting a menorah for eight days and eating fare cooked in oil or laden with cheese.

um, i think there might be more to it than that. but hey, food is important in religious holidays--that a celebration should include deep fried dough and dairy goodness can only be a good thing, right?

this isn't fried in oil, but it is definitely laden with cheese: a dark chocolate chocolate chip cheesecake from the whimsical bakehouse by kaye and liv hansen. the recipe was adapted from this mocha chocolate chip cheesecake--just omit the espresso. also, all the fiddly decorative bits and chocolate glaze are nice but unnecessary--this cake is good enough on its own. it is creamy, not too sweet, rich, but not too heavy. a lovely addition to any holiday feasting.

merry, bright.

the simplest of ice cream recipes, as brought to you by the man, made slightly more festive with the addition of milk chocolate covered rice crispy bits. the chocolate coating helps keep the puffy rice crispy, and adds a lovely bit of light texture in this velvety rich ice cream.

if you don't have the powdered milk, you can leave it out. if you don't have an ice cream maker, just pour the mix into a zippered freezer bag, then place in the freezer; squish it about every half hour or so until it has a soft-serve like consistency. to make the chocolate rice crispies, melt a bar of milk chocolate (i find leaving it on my car dashboard to be the most effective method--if that's not in your plans, try one of these methods), add approximately one cup of puffed rice cereal to the slightly cooled chocolate, mixing gently until coated well. spread out onto wax paper or silpat sheet to cool, then fold into the prepared ice cream.

joining the christmas countdown.

miss zarah of food and thoughts is in the holiday spirit and planning on offering a new post for the next 24 days. i love the idea of her christmas countdown, but doubt that i can match her largesse. however, it doesn't hurt to try, does it? so, hopefully, for the run up until the 'mas i will attempt to double my output--from one post a week to at least two. >gasp< i know. it's mind-boggling, innit. i've just read that cathy from my little kitchen plans to join in as well--anybody else up for the challenge?