California Maki / Rolls

Sushi rolls is a very popular Japanese dish all over the world.  I did the traditional sushi rolls earlier in this foodblog.  Back then, I did not have my sushi rollers with me yet that's why I had to roll it using foil.  Good thing I was able to find one at Woolworths in Warwick for just $2.  I have made some at my in laws house last Easter and everyone loved the sushi rolls.

This time I am going to make California Rolls or Makisushi which is actually the sushi rolls in reverse.  Instead of rolling the rice inside the seaweed, this type of sushi rolls is rolled inside out and a certain type of mixed herbs are sprinkled on the rice.

As I have said before, you can be as adventurous as you like when it comes to the filling of the rolls.  Normally, avocados are used.  Some would use bananas, mangoes and apricots.  Tuna or salmon, crab meat or imitation crab meat are also used.  Toasted sesame seeds are sometimes sprinkled too on the rice.  This time I would use peaches with crab meat though.

California rolls or maki is actually a product of the experimentation by a well known Japanese chef who decided to find his fortune in the US in the Ichito Mashita.  Officially this type of rolls was born in the early 1970s.  They started doing the inside out rolls because the Americans did not want to see or taste the nori seaweed outside the rolls. So to suit to their liking, the Sushi chef devised this new way.

Ingredients
1 c arborio rice
1 1/2 water
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
2 tbsp caster sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 c crab meat
2 tbsp mayonnaise + 1/2 tsp
1 c peaches
8 pcs nori seaweed
toasted sasame seeds and the mixture that comes with the seaweed

You also need:
Sushi mat
foil

Procedure

 Place the sushi mat in a flat surface.  Place the a foil similar to its size on top of the mat.  Sprinkle with sushi rice seasoning and toasted sesame seeds.

 Put some rice on top of the sprinkled foil.  Flatten using hands.

 Place the fillings -- eggs, peaches and crab meat on top of the rice (an inch from the edge of the rice
on your side)

 Place the seaweed on top of the sushi.

 Start rolling tightly going to the other side. 

 As you roll, pull the foil up until the sushi is fully rolled up tightly. 

Slice the sushi rolls with a wet sharp knife.  Serve with sushi soy sauce and wasabi.

A comment or two will be appreciated...

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Cheat Way to Make Pandan Puto (rice cake)

How would you make puto pandan when you're not in the Philippines and not all the ingredients are available? Use the cheat way to do it!  Just grab yourself a Maya Puto Mix and pandan and presto!  You have your own puto pandan away from the Philippines.

Ingredients
1 packet of Maya Puto Mix
3/4 sugar
40 g butter, melted
1 c fresh milk or evaporated milk
1/2  tsp pandan paste
1 drop of green food color
1/2 c grated cheese
1 egg, beaten

Procedure
Put the puto mix in a bowl.
Add in all the dry ingredients except for the cheese.
Make a well in the middle.
Whisk in the butter, milk and egg.
Add in the pandan paste and food color. Mix well.
Grease a round pan or muffin moulds with butter.
Pour in the batter onto the moulds or pan.
Cover with foil.
Steam for 30 minutes from the time the water boils.
Top with grated cheese 10 minutes before the steaming time ends.
Cool a bit.
Spread butter or margarine on top.
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My Easy to Cook Seafood Paella

Paella is a rice dish which may include meat, peas, beans, capsicums etc.  The hero of the dish is the rice itself.  The word paella comes from the old French word paelle which actually originates from the Latin word patella  which means pan.  The dish on the other hand is  Valencian in origin (a place in Spain) and  one of its identifiable symbols.  They would usually use a paellera -- a big pan where the paella will be cooked which will also be used as the serving "plate."  It is usually cooked on open fire using branches of orange and pine trees which in turn add more appetizing smell to the paella.

This dish was brought to the Philippines by the Spanish when they governed our country.  I consider this as one of the best Spanish influences when it comes to food.

Paella would always use saffron as one of its ingredients but since I do not have it in my pantry, I decided to whip up my own recipe for the paella.  Good thing I have discovered that the baked seafood rice in capcicum that I made many months ago tasted similar to the paella that I have had before.  Paella can also be cooked with all the ingredients all together in the rice cooker if you want it the easier way. You can also cook the rice with all the ingredients in the pan if you wish.  What I did with my dish is to cook the rice separately in the rice cooker and just added it to the mixture in the wok.  I do not have a paellera and the closest to it is my non - stick pan but I chose to use the wok for the fear of having to transfer the paella into a bigger pot or wok in the middle of cooking. 

If you wonder what kind of rice can you use for the paella recipe, I used jasmine rice.  I wanted to use arborio originally for the dish but I decided against it because arborio is much too dear (stingy me).  You can also use any short grain rice or whatever rice you like as long as they stick together and absorb the juice of the paella mixture.  I also decided to bake my paella to make sure that the rice would really absorb all the taste in the mixture.

The result was really delicious.  Try it and I tell you it's all worth it.

Ingredients
1/2 c seafood marinara mix (calamari, pink salmon, prawns, mussels, barramundi fish, clams etc)
4 c jasmine rice
1 c green peas
2 medium onions, minced
1 tbsp garlic, minced
1 big red capcicum, diced
2 big tomatoes, diced, deseeded and peeled
3 tbsp tomato paste
2 chicken cubes
2 c water
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp thyme paste
1 tsp parsley (dried flakes)
salt and pepper to taste
2 hardboiled eggs, quartered
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil

Procedure
Cook the jasmine rice in the rice cooker.
Dissolve chicken cubes in the 2 c warm water in a pyrex measuring glass.  Stir in the tomato paste.  Set aside.
Heat up a wok or paella pan with olive oil.
Sautee onions, garlic, tomatoes and capcicum.  Cook until the mixture is just about caramelized.
Add in the herbs, salt and pepper.  Stir.
Put in the seafood marinara mix.  Stir.
Pour in the chicken broth - tomato paste mixture.  Boil.
Put in the rice.  Stir.
Simmer until most of the liquid has evaporated.
Transfer the paella into a baking dish. 
Arrange the egg wedges on top of the paella.
Cover with foil and bake for 15 minutes in a 180C preheated oven.

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Garlic Fried Rice (Sinangag sa bawang)

Who would not love the smell of fresh garlic from your garlic rice being cooked in your pan?  Just the smell of it makes one's tummies hungry.  This is the easiest and simplest sinangag that anyone could cook without any fuss.

  My father would always cook garlic fried rice for us using the day old rice we have in the fridge.  He would toast the rice first a bit before adding the oil and toasting the garlic.  The best treat for us would be the real toasted part of the fried rice, the ones which would get stuck at the pan.  My father would scrape them and shape them like small sausages. My siblings and I would eat them in a flash.  That's how yummy it is. 

This is actually my father's recipe as I remember it.

Igredients
4 cups day old rice
6 pcs of mashed and minced fresh garlic
salt to taste

Procedure
Mix the salt thoroughly with the rice.  You can use your hands if you like or use a spoon.
Heat a pan.
Toast the rice and make sure to stir it every now and then until is half way cooked (just when it's starting to change its color).
Put the rice on the one side of the pan.  Pour oil on the clean side of the pan and toast garlic. 
When the garlic is starting to go brown in color.  Mix the rice with it and cook for at least 3-5 minutes more.  Have a spoon of rice and taste if it suits to your liking.
Serve hot with garlic granules on top.
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TOCILOG (Tocino-Longganisa-Sinangag)

I actually had no idea that tocino in the Carrebean is not cured at all but just fried until it's crispy and added to another dish.  They would also use the backfat though just like the tocino we make in the Philippines.

The one we have in the Philippines is made thru curing for a number of days using brown sugar, saltpeter (salitre), anise wine, and annatto water.  Saltpeter or salitre is actually potassium nitrate similar to the ones used in fertilizers and medicines.  It has been used as a food preservative since the middle ages when freezers or refrigeration were not present yet.  I was really scared to use it since I have read somewhere any wrong dose would have detremental effect to anyone.  I decided to just stay away from it then.

Traditionally, to-ci-log dish is served during breakfast but I would love to eat them any time of the day which I am sure that other Filipinos do too.  Tocino's best partners on your plate would be garlic rice and sunny side up eggs plus fresh tomatoes.  My husband loved this meal that he had second helpings.

Ingredients
1/2 K pork (I used pork loin chops with the fat on)
1/2 C brown sugar
1 tbsp salt
2 tbsp anise wine
2 tbsp soy sauce (light one)
2 tbsp annatto water (from soaking atchuete seeds)

Procedure
Mix all the ingredients except the pork in a bowl. 
Add in the pork and make sure that the mixture is infused in the meat all throughout.  Use ziplock or a bigger container with lid and shake until the meat is fully coated with the curing mix.
Cure the tocino for 1-2 days in the fridge before frying.

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Pinoy Biko with a twist

I am not really a biko lover.  Even when I was younger, whenever my tatay or nanay or Nanang Abe would buy biko and kalamay hirin from the town center, I would always choose the kalamay hirin.  So when I decided to cook a biko, I was surprised myself maybe because the feeling of homesickness got into me? 

I've found this recipe at panlasangpinoy on how to cook biko the easy way using a rice cooker.  It's a great help indeed.  I was thinking though whether I would use caramel toppings but I decided that maybe I should try leche flan topping.  I just followed my recipe in making a custard but added coconut cream for more flavor.  This biko with a twist turned out really yummy that my husband and daughters couldn't stop eating.  I loved the taste too.  I would probably make more biko in the future.   Maybe next time I will use mangoes as toppings? hmmm....interesting!

Ingredients
Biko
2 c glutinous rice (malagkit)
4 c coconut cream (2 tins or kakang gata)
1 1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
pandan leaves (2)

Toppings
Coco-Leche Flan
1 c coconut cream
1 c condensed milk
1 c evaporated milk
2 tbsp plain flour
5 egg yolks
lime rind

Procedure

You have the option to cook rice in a rice cooker with 1 1/2 c water or you can add the uncooked rice to the coco-cugar mixture and cook it together with it. 
Combine the coco-sugar- salt mixture in a pot before you put it on the fire. 
Make sure that the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is a little bit thick when you add the uncooked rice.  If you are going to add the cooked rice, the mixture should be thick enough to your liking. 
The important thing is the rice is cooked and the most of the liquid has evaporated. 
Remember to keep stiring the rice-coco-sugar mixture (put the pandan in) to make sure that the liquid is evenly distributed and that it doesn't get burn at the bottom.
Put the biko in a foil pan or any pan that is oven proof

Coco - Leche Flan
Beat the egg yolks and put the lime rind on it.  Set aside
Whisk the coconut cream, evaporated and condensed milk, and flour in a pot before cooking them.  Put the pot over  a low fire and continue whisking until it gets thicker.  Put the egg yolks (remove the lime rind) in and continue stirring until it's thick enough to your liking.

Spread the coco-leche flan into the biko.  Use a big spatula to do this (or a turner).
Bake the biko in a 175C preheated oven for 15 minutes or until the top is a little bit brownish in color.

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Sushi Rolls

I suddenly craved for sushi rolls or califonia maki when I saw the Nori Seaweed and wasabi at IGA.  When we got home I told my husband maybe I'll make some sushi rolls.  That would mean he had to go back and buy arborio rice and mangoes! 

I still have my crab meat in the freezer and rice wine vinegar in my pantry so that wouldn't be a problem anymore.  Making sushi rolls is not really that difficult.  I think it's the easiest dish I made so far.  Compared to the ready to eat ones that you can buy, I still prefer to make my own.  Here in Australia, there are a few of  fast food/resto that got fined because of contaminated sushi rolls.  So I would really opt to cook sushi rolls myself.

Makizushi are sushi rolls. Sushi rice and various ingredients are rolled in nori (dried seaweed) as maki means rolling in Japanese. Since makizushi are wrapped by nori, they are also called nori-maki. There are many kinds of sushi rolls. Popular sushi rolls in Japan are tekka-maki (tuna sashimi rolls), kappa-maki (cucumber rolls), and more. Makizushi are good finger food.

Ingredients:1 C arborio rice
1 1/2 C water
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
2 tbsp caster sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 egg, beaten
1/2 C crab meat (sticks)
1/2 C mango, sliced lengthwise
1/4 C soy sauce
1 tsp wasabi
3 pcs nori seaweed

Procedure:

1. Use the rice cooker for the rice.
2. Add a little of salt to the beaten egg and fry.  Shred after.
3. Mix rice wine vinegar, sugar and salt in a small bowl.  Make sure that sugar is completely dissolved.
4. Mix the rice vinegar mixture with the rice thoroughly.
5. Put the nori seaweed in the preheated oven (150C) for 2 minutes.
6. Make sure that your hands are wet when you place the nori seaweed in the bamboo roller (shiny side facing the roller). 
7. Divide rice into 3.  Place each 1/3 amount of rice into the seaweed making sure that the rice sticks together.  Pat the rice.  Arrange the crab meat, egg and mangoes in the middle of the rice.
8. Roll the sushi making sure that it's tight and compact. 
9. Slice the rolls into 6. 
10. Mix the soy sauce and wasabi for the dip.
11. Serve.

Note:  If you do not have sushi bamboo roller, you can use foil and follow what you usually do with embutido.  You can replace the meat and fruits....be adventurous.  It would be best to eat the sushi rolls within 2 days. 

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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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