Bibingka

The type of bibingka that went famous because of the Ilocanos is the Vigan Royal bibingka which is made from glutinous flour, margarine or butter, sugar, coconut cream, fresh milk and cheese. This resembles the tikoy more than the the usual bibingka that we buy during Christmas season when it comes to texture . It's gluey and smoother.


I first had a taste of this wonderful smooth gluey food when Corazon Lau (Cora), and Rose Garcia brought this as pasalubong for us when theycame back from a trip to Ilocos. That was some 10+ years ago. That's the best part of having co - teachers from different parts of the Philippines, aside from gaining friends, you are also enriching your knowledge on cultures and traditions. These two wonderful women made me crave for this delicacy that everytime we go there now, we would always go to Tongson's Royal Bibingka. It is easy to find the delicacy shop which also sells chichacorns (I remember how my tatay + loved chichacorns. He would usually put this in an empty canister of pringles!!! He would also bring this to his friends for pulutan purposes.). The store is located along Kalye Crisologo...actually, just before you go to the native product stores. Now, Marsha's Delicacies is also making a big name because of this bibingka.

Try this easy recipe and enjoy!!!

Ingredients:
2 C glutinous rice flour
1 C canned coconut cream
1/2 C fresh milk
5 egg yolks
1 C sugar
grated cheese for toppings
1/4 cup margarine for toppings and coating

Procedure:

1. Mix the glutinous flour with the sugar in a bowl. Whisk in the milk and coconut cream until smooth.
2. Add the egg yolks and continue to whisk until well blended.
3. Coat the molds with margarine.
4. Spoon batter about 3/4 of the size of the muffin molds and then cover with aluminum foil.
5. Bake in 350 - 375 F or 180 C if using fan forced oven for 20 minutes.
6. Remove the cover of the half cooked bibingka and then sprinkle cheese and sugar on top of each bibingka.
7. Cover the molds with the aluminum foil again. Put the bibingka back to the oven and bake for another 25 - 30 minutes.
8. Remove the aluminum foil cover during the final 10 minutes of baking and brush 3x with margarine at different interval.

Note: You can also use the kakang gata from the freshly squeezed coconut. It is also better to use silicon molds in baking this bibingka (which I hope to get soon). I also used caster sugar instead of the ordinary white sugar to make the bibingka smoother.

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Ensaymada

When I was a child, my Nanang Abe (My grand auntie who passed away at the age of 100 in 2004) used to have a small sari - sari store in Sagrada Familia (Hagonoy, Bulacan). She would always take me with her each time she went to the palengke (town market) to buy her store supplies. One thing I remember was this small coiled almost like a katol (LOL) soft bread with cheese and sugar toppings that she would always buy in 6 pieces. 

They were usually bought in a plastic bag wrapping. I could not remember how much were they though but I know that Nanang Abe would just add a 5 cent on top of the price of each piece when she sold them at her sari - sari store. I remember I would have them as "baon" and they were actually yummy. I couldn't remember though if I have paid Nanang Abe for my "baon"..heheheh.

Fast forward ...today, the "Megamelt" ensaymada of the Muhlach's family (Nino Muhlach) is one of the best ensaymada I have had. It so happened that one of the sisters of Nino was my student many years ago at Miriam Grade School. She was kind enough to bring me to their farm in Batangas and their Ensaymada factory. Other ensaymadas that I really love to eat are those from Girlie's Malolos and the ones from Barasoain Bakeshop.

According to spot.com, the following are the top 10 ensaymadas ...I will surely try each one of them when I go back and visit the Philippines.
1. Café Mary Grace Classic Ensaymada (P52)
2. The Peninsula Manila's Plain Ensaymada (P84.60)
3. Uno Restaurant Ensaymada (P30)
4. Hizon's Quezo de Bola Ensaymada (P105)
5. Medina Ensaymada (P205)
6. Imang Beatrice Rodriguez of Pampanga Ensaymada (P200)
7. The Kapampangan Homemade Classic Ensaymada (P170)
8. Cunanan Ensaymada (P580 for a dozen ensaymadas in a box)
9. Addie's Ensaymada (P1,100 for a dozen small, 100-gram ensaymadas)
10. Pasteleria Mallorca Ensaymada (P270 for one gigantic ensaymada)

Try this awesome recipe which Steve (my hubby) added a little twist to

Ingredients:
Dough
1/3 C refined sugar
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp instant yeast
2 tbs warm water
1/2 all purpose flour
1/3 C butter

Sponge:
1 egg
1 tbsp refined sugar
1 tsp instant yeast
2 tbsp warm water
3 egg yolks
1/2 C all purpose flour
1 C mashed potatoes

Toppings:
grated cheese
melted butter
sugar

Procedure:

1. Mix Sponge ingredients in amixing bowl. Combine until blended and knead until dough is smooth. Shape into a ball, cover with damp cloth or cling wrap and let rise for 2 hours at room temperature.
2. Put the dough ingredients except butter in a mixing bowl. Blend well. Add the sponge and butter. Knead just until it is smooth and elastic. Shape into a ball. Put in a bowl and cover with damp cloth and let rise until it doubles its size.
3. Punch dough and divide into desired number of pieces. Shape into balls and cover again with damp cloth and let rise for about 30 minutes.
4. Roll out each piece thinly into rectangles. Brush surfaces with butter. Roll into logs and twirl into shape, locking the ends to seal. Place on greased ensaymada molds or baking pan. Let rise for 2 hours and wait until it double its size.
5. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown at 325 F or 160-170 C fan forced oven.
6. Cool slightly and brush with melted butter. Top with cheese and sprinkle sugar.

Note: Don't overknead and don't forget to follow the time allotted for each resting. Steve used a mashed potato Aussie style recipe. It made the ensaymada softer.

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Cream Puff

Cream Puff has always been my favourite since the time when Ditos (my dear friend from Miriam College)has baked this for us. He would always give a box of this yummy pastry every Christmas to all his friends. It's mouthwatering, believe me. The crispiness of the caramelised sugar outside and the creamy filling would really make us crave more and more. He only stopped baking this one when his oven got stuffed up because of the floods in Malabon.

Here is a recipe and a variety of fillings to satisfy your palate.

Cream Puff

Ingredients:
1 C water
1/2 C butter
1 C all purpose flour or plain flour
4 eggs (I added the eggs as the recipe I have found had no eggs in it)

Procedure:
Preheat oven to 400 F or 200 C if you're using fan forced oven like I do. Heat water and butter to a rolling boil in a saucepan. You can use the medium sized saucepan. Add flour all at once and stir vigorously over low heat until mixture forms a ball (about 1 minute). remove from heat. beat in eggs thoroughly one at a time. drop from a spoon onto ungreased baking sheet into mounds with about 3 inches apart. Bake at 45 to 50 minutes (Don't be scared that you might burn it because based from my experience, it would really take that long if the size of the puff is a spoonfull.) until puffed, gorlden brown and dry. When they're a bit cool, split cream puffs. I would also sometimes use my piping bag to put the filling and I use the round nozzle. Put the filling inin and dribble with caramelised sugar.


Fillings:

Cream
1/2 C sugar
1/3 C all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 C fresh milk
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla

Procedure:
Mix sugar, four and salt in a saucepan. Blend in milk. Cook over medium heat, stirring until it boils. Boil for 10 minutes and then remove from fire. Stir half of cream mixture into beaten eggs. Pour back in saucepan and blend. Bring just to a boil. Lower heat and stir for 10 minutes or until it could coat a spoon. Cool, add vanilla and fill puffs.

Note:
Use a wooden spoon in stirring. You can add vanilla early in the procedure in you want. I do that to make sure that the vanilla is well mixed with the cream mixture. I also suggest that you put the cream filling in the fridge for at least 10 minutes before you fill the puffs.


Custard
Ingredients:
1 C milk
4 egg yolks
1 C thickened cream
1 tsp vanilla
3 tbsp cornflour
1/3 C confectioners sugar

Procedure:
In a saucepan, mix milk, cream, and vanilla. Stir until hot enough but not boiling. Remove from fire and set aside.
Beat egg yolks, cornflour and sugar in a bowl until mixed evenly. Pour hot milk mixture to the egg mixture while whisking continuously.
Place the mixture back into the saucepan and cook in avery low heat for 15 minutes or until custard form. Set aside and let it cool.

Note:
One thing difficult about making custard is that you need to make sure that you have the right amount of heat to cook it and that you have to whisk it non-stop until you reach your desired consistency. There is always the danger of curdling the mixture so it is very very important to follow the procedure by heart.


Lemon Cream
Ingredients:
1 egg
1/3 C sugar
3 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp butter, cubed
1 C heavy cream
2 tsp confectioners sugar

Procedure:
In a saucepan, combine egg, sugar, lemon juice and butter. Boil for 5 -7 minutes.
Remove from heat. cool quickly by placing pan in a bowl of ice water for 2 minutes. Refrigerate until partially set.
Beat in sugar and cream. Fold in lemon mixture.

Note:
I suggest that you use the freshly squeezed juice of a lemon instead of buying the one in the bottle. I really don't like the medicine - like taste of the ones that we buy in bottles.


Chocolate

Ingredients:
1 C heavy whipping cream
1/2 C confectioners sugar
2 tbsp cocoa

Procedures:
Beat cream until soft peaks form. Add sugar, cocoa until almost stiff.

Note:
I use the cadburry cocoa. This is the easiest and the simplest filling. No need for cooking.


Glaze

Caramelised Sugar
1 C sugar
1/2 C hot water

Melt sugar in a heavy metal container. As soon as the sugar is golden brown, add the hot water to disolve caramelised sugar and form syrup.

Note:
Do this carefully because you don't really want to get burn with the sugar. Make sure that the water is really hot because if it it a bit cool, the sugar will become solid.

Chocolate
1/2 C choc chips
2 tbsp condensed milk

Procedure
Melt the chocolates in a double layer saucepan. Make sure that the bottom is not touching the water. Add milk.

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Jap Chae Glass Noodles

This Korean noodle recipe reminds me of the days when Denden (a former co teacher) would have the noodles brought to our school parties by our Korean students. The marriage of the the saltiness and the sweetness in the recipe is just perfect! I would often tell myself then that I would try cooking this someday. Fortunately I have found a nice and yet simple recipe on the internet (I forgot the source though). 

I cooked it first on our New Year's Eve dinner in the Philippines in 2009 and I did it again a few months ago in Australia.

Ingredients
1/2 pound dried Korean sweet potato noodles
2 1/2 teaspoons sesame oil, divided
1 tablespoon cooking oil
3/4 cup thinly sliced onions
2 carrots, cut into matchsticks
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
3 stalks scallions, cut into 1″ lengths
1/2 cup mushrooms, thinly sliced (shitake, wood ear)
1/2 lb spinach, washed well and drained
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons sugar
1 tablespoon sesame seeds

Procedure:
Fill a large pot with water and boil. When water is boiling, add the noodles and cook for 5 minutes. Immediately drain and rinse with cold water. Drain again and toss with only 1 tsp of the sesame oil. Use kitchen shears to cut noodles into shorter pieces, about 8 inches in length. Set aside.

In bowl, mix soy sauce & sugar together. Add the cooking oil in a wok or large saute pan on high heat and swirl to coat. When the cooking oil is hot but not smoking. Fry onions and carrots, until just softened, about 1 minute. Add the garlic, scallions and mushrooms, fry 30 seconds. Then add the spinach, soy sauce, sugar and the noodles. Fry 2-3 minutes until the noodles are cooked through. Turn off heat, toss with sesame seeds and the remaining 1 1/2 tsp of sesame oil.

Note: You can buy the glass noodles at any asian stores if you are abroad and in Korean shops if you are in the Philippines.

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Nilugawang Manok

I remember lugaw being the most cooked food in my old home before. When someone gets sick, a mother gives birth, someone died, or it's cold and raining, you can be sure that lugaw would always be present. If my tatay would not be able to cook one, he would go to the talipapa or bayan to buy us lugaw (but of course, I would still prefer that he be the one to cook this for us). 

This has also become a good moneymaking business by enterprising people.   The term "Tubong Lugaw" literaly means big profits out of small capital. Just imagine how much water would they pour into that giant pot. Amazingly this does not affect the taste of the lugaw (based from my experience in eating lugaw at the palengke's karinderya).


My nanay and I have different ways of cooking lugaw. I don't know which one tastes better but since she's my mother, I would probably say hers is better lugaw (though I know mine is better hahahah).

Nilugawang Manok (my version)

Ingredients
8 pcs chicken wings
1 C glutinous rice
2 L water
2 pcs knorr or maggie chicken cubes
1 pc medium size onions, diced
2 tbsp garlic, minced
1/4 C spring onions, minced
fish sauce or patis
pepper
eggs (optional) boiled

Procedure:

• Boil the chicken wings in the 2 L of water with 1 pc of chicken boullion cube until the meat becomes tender. Set aside the chicken broth. Put the chicken wings in a bowl and remove the bones. Marinate with fish sauce for 15 minutes.
• Sautee onions, garlic, spring onions in a big wok. Add chicken wings. Pour the chicken broth. Add the other chicken broth cube. Add the glutinous rice and stir continuously. You can add more water if you want. Remove from fire when the glutinous rice is cooked.
• Serve in a bowl. Put eggs, spring roll and pepper.

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Pavlova

I don't really know when did I have my first taste of pavlova Aussie style. Funny, even my husband could not really remember if I ever had one when I got here in Australia. What I am very sure about is their pavlova is quite similar to the white soft meringue in our pinoy brazo de mercedes which we buy from Goldilocks or Red Ribbon.

Anyway, I was making leche flans a few days ago and I hated to throw the egg whites so I asked my husband what should I do with them. That's when the pavlova idea came about. I tried to look for recipes and most of them used 4 egg whites. I did a little change to the recipe to use most of the egg whites I've had so instead of 4, I decided to use 8 egg whites and the result was better. The pavlova was not overly sweet and that's what what we liked. Then we suddenly remembered, we needed to add toppings and cream so off he went to IGA to buy the ingredients.

Ingredients:

8 egg whites
1 cup (220g) caster (superfine) sugar
2 tablespoons corn flour (corn starch), sifted
2 teaspoons white vinegar

toppings:
any fruit you like
heavy cream (add caster sugar while whipping with electric mixer)

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 150°C (300°F).

2. Place the eggwhite in the bowl of an electric mixer and whisk until stiff peaks form. Gradually add the sugar, whisking well, until the mixture is stiff and glossy. Add the cornflour and vinegar and whisk until just combined. Shape the mixture into an 18cm round on a baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper.

3. Reduce oven to 120°C (250°F) and bake for 1 hour 20 minutes. Turn the oven off and allow the pavlova to cool completely in the oven.

4. Decorate with your desired toppings

Note:  Do not overcook the pavlova or it will  become so dry and look more like a meringur candy.  That's what happened to the kiwis' mini - pavlova last night at My Kitchen Rules (Australian Cooking Show).

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