Day 80/365: Sopas

21 Mar 2011 Photo of the Day

Easy to make chicken soup with your favorite short pasta. Shred or cut left-over roasted/fried chicken into small pieces. Sauté minced garlic and onions, add the chicken. Add water, fish sauce, chicken cube and bring to boil. Add boiled short pasta, evaporated milk and pepper. Simmer for few minutes. Serve while hot and enjoy! :)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Day 72/365: Choco-Caramel Cake

13 Mar 2011 Photo of the Day

Love love love my chocolate cake! And this time with caramel frost!! :) Yum Yum! :)

Day 70/365: Caramel Sauce Ala Frost

11 Mar 2011 Photo of the Day

I was actually craving for chocolate cupcake with caramel sauce.  I remember when I was working in Manila, one of my office mate often ordered a homemade chocolate cupcake with caramel sauce for us.  The caramel sauce was so perfect and I loved it!  I was hoping I could make that too, so I tried one of the recipe from allrecipes.co.uk.  The recipe was a bit watery for me so I experimented of adding cornstarch on my last additions of cream.  I've made additions of cream and cornstarch till I reached my desired creaminess.  After it cooled down, I was surprised it turned out to be frosty.  In fairness, the caramel taste and sweetness was just perfect.  I enjoyed the caramel flavor top with my favorite chocolate cake :)

Day 67/365: Traditional Way of Cooking Tikoy

The above photo is the traditional way of enjoying your tikoy ~ slice it thinly, dip in egg then fry.  I also cook like cheese stick style ~ slice tikoy like cheese stick and wrap it in spring roll wrapper then fry. 

Day 65/365: Champorado

This is one of my favorite breakfast or snacks.  When I make champorado, I only used sticky rice and cocoa powder.  In deep cooking pot, boil 1 cup of sticky rice with at least 4 cups of water.  Stir from time to time until rice almost cooked then add at 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup of cocoa powder according to your preference.  You may add water too while cooking.  Please note that as champorado cools, the water lessens (like it dries up).  Feel free to adjust the servings of your sticky rice & cocoa depending on your needs.  Serve in bowl,  pour your favorite evaporated or condensed milk and add sugar.

Day 64/365: Ube Tikoy

I'm missing tikoy and its been years since I haven't eaten even a slice.  And its past CNY when I first made my homemade tikoy.  I just realized to search for the recipe few days after CNY this year but too lazy to prepare.  But you know, tikoy is a no brainer actually.  It is easy to make and ingredients are so basic.  Only three important ingredients needed - glutinous rice flour, warm water and sugar.  For tikoy recipe please refer to Panlasang Pinoy.

My version, I added a twist.  It's actually Ube Tikoy.  I followed his basic recipe.  Then I just changed the brown sugar to white sugar and added ube flavor / coloring to it.  That's it!! :)

Day 26: Meatballs Soup with Misu

Our dinner.  Here’s the recipe. . .

You need:

For the meatballs: 230g minced pork; 1pc medium size carrot, shredded; 1pc medium onion, minced; 3pc cloves garlic, minced or shredded; 2 tbsp flour; 1pc egg; 1/4 tsp dried parsley; salt and pepper to taste.

For the soup: 1 pc medium onion, minced; cooking oil; 4 1/2 cups of water; fish sauce; 1pc pork cubes; 50g flour vermicelli or misu; and pepper to taste.

Optional: 2pc corn cub, cut small

1. Combine all together meatball ingredients.
2. In a casserole, heat cooking oil and saute onions.  Add water and bring to boil.  Add the pork cubes and small amount of fish sauce about 2tbsp. 
3. Once water is boiling, form a ball on meatball mixture then drop carefully on soup.  Simmer until meatballs ready.  Optional: while simmering you can add the corn cub.
4. Add the flour vermicelli and season to taste.  Simmer for a few minutes. 
5. Serve hot and enjoy.

Healthy Brownies

I’m naming this healthy brownies cos I used whole wheat flour and no butter.  For those who have egg allergy, this one is for you.  This is far different to the one I baked before, refer here.  To compare, my old version is more delicious, moist and very very yummy.  This new one is still good, but not that moist anymore – not cakey.  But its not that dry either.  If you try this, don’t be surprise that your batter will be like a cookie batter.  No worries, its okay.  If you don’t like that kind of batter, I suggest you add half a cup of non-fat milk or non-fat evaporated milk. 

Ingredients:

Brownies -

• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2/3 cup fine white sugar
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 5 tbsp canola oil
• 1 tsp vinegar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup warm water

Frosting -

• 100g dark chocolate chips
• 100g all-purpose cream or heavy cream

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 350F / 175C.
2. Add all dry ingredients in a large sifter.  Sift twice in a mixing bowl.  While sifting together, you will notice that everything’s well combined.
3. Then add all the wet ingredients.  Mix with spatula or fork until smooth.
4. Pour mixture into a prepared greased square pan (about 9-inch) and bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes.  Cool completely in pan.
5. For frosting, combine chocolate chips and cream in double boiler.  Mix till melted and well combine.  Remove from heat.  Continue mixing to cool. 
6. Once both are cooled, pour the frosting into the brownie pan.  Spread evenly.  Put in fridge for at least an hour to set.  Slice brownies from pan and serve.

Feel free to try this recipe and please don’t forget to send me a note / comment here.  A link to my site is highly appreciated.  Thank you and enjoy! :)

Chicken & Pepper Noodles

Would like to present one of my personal lunch, meaning only me and myself ate this.  But this meal serves for 2 persons :))  The preparation and tastes are very simple.  I would have made this spicy for strong flavor but I don’t have anything during that time.

Ingredients:

• 200g  wheat noodles
• 200g chicken fillet, cut into small pieces or strips
• 1/2 green bell pepper, sliced
• 1/2 red bell pepper, sliced
• 1 small onion, sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1/2 inch ginger, finely chopped
• 2 small calamansi
• cooking oil
• salt & pepper to taste

Procedure:

1. Heat pan and add the oil.  Once the oil has heated, add the garlic and stir-fry until golden brown.
2. Add the chicken and cook for few minutes until lightly browned.  Add and stir in ginger.  Remove the the chicken from the pan and set aside.
3. In same pan, add bell peppers and onion and stir-fry for a few minutes. 
4. Heat the noodles, as per packet instruction.
5. Return the chicken to the pan and stir with calamansi.  Season with salt and pepper.  Serve over cooked noodles.

Carrot Cupcakes

I'm trying my best to prepare healthy meal for my family.  I would love to try transforming it to near healthy as possible.  What I made this time was something more healthy.  My cupcake was inspired from one of my cookbook collection.  The original recipe was good but since I'm using different flour,  I made modification on the procedure as well as the other ingredients like flour, sugar, vegetable oil and added non-fat evaporated milk.  Since I used whole wheat flour, I sifted it twice to incorporate air and added additional liquid like milk to avoid the dense texture.  I was happy it turned out really good.  I like the soft texture, sweetness, flavor and the color.  Even when put in fridge, the cupcake was still soft.  I suggest you try this too.  If you try my recipe, please link back to me and feel free to leave me a note here.   



Ingredients:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour, sifted twice*
  
• 2/3 cup sugar
  
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
  
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
  
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  
• 1 1/2 cups carrots, finely shredded
  
• 2 eggs, room temperature
  
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  
• 2/3 cup evaporated milk, non fat

*For the whole wheat flour, re-measure the flour after sifting twice – make sure it’s the correct measurement. 

Procedure:

Prepare cupcake cases in muffin tray.  Preheat oven to 180C or 350F.

Place the sifted whole wheat flour in a large mixing bowl.  Add sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and ground cinnamon and mix together with rubber spatula.

Add carrots, eggs, canola oil and mix with a hand mixer until combine.  Do not over mix.

Finally, add the milk and mix well.  Again, do not over mix.

Scoop the mixture into the cupcake liners up to 2/3 full. 

Place in the middle of the preheated oven and bake for  15 minutes.  Do not over bake. 

Remove from oven and leave to cool at least 5 minutes.  Then transfer onto a cooling rack to cool completely.  





A bonus!  Here’s for the icing…

Cream Cheese Icing 

Ingredients:

• 112g cream cheese
  
• 25g unsalted butter
  
• 80g icing sugar

Procedure: Combine the cream cheese, softened butter, and icing sugar in a bowl and whisk with hand mixer until smooth.  Once cupcakes are completely cool, spread over cupcake.



Serve and enjoy!! :)

My Homemade Bread

Just so you know, I am trying my best not to bake sweets.  We are cutting down on sweets :P  Though my week will not be complete when I don’t bake at least twice.  So I decided, why not bake our own bread as I often buy bread in store. 

I’ve been making this few times already and I highly recommend it.



Ingredients:

• 1 cup bread flour
  
• 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
  
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
  
• 2 1/4 teaspoons dry yeast (1 packet)
  
• 1 cup warm water
  
• 1/4 cup sugar
  
• 1/3 cup milk
  
• 1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil

Procedure:

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine water, sugar, milk and dry yeast.  Mix and set aside, wait until bubble forms on top of the mixture (approx 10 minutes).
2. In separate bowl, combine bread flour, whole wheat flour and salt.  Mix well.
3. Once yeast mixture is ready, add vegetable/canola oil and stir.
4. Add the flour mixture and stir until dough starts to pull away from the bowl.
5. Place the dough on a lightly flour and clean surface and knead the dough for at least 10 minutes or until the dough becomes smooth.
6. Grease the mixing bowl with oil and place the dough in the bowl, flip once to cover the top with oil.  Cover the bowl with damp cloth and let it rise (double in size) for at least one hour.  
7. Grease 9-inch loaf pan with a little bit of oil and flour, set aside.  Take the dough out of the bowl and place on a clean lightly floured surface, then shape the dough the size of prepared loaf pan.
8. Loosely cover the loaf pan with lightly oil plastic wrap and let it rise again for at least 15 minutes.  The dough should rise about 1-inch above the pan.
9. Preheat oven to 350F.
10. Bake in center of oven for 40 minutes.  Roughly around 15 minutes or so, the top of the bread will turn brown.  If so, loosely cover the pan with aluminum foil.
11. Knock the bottom of the bread and it should sound hallow.  Let it cool completely on wire rack then slice. 

Egg Tart

When I was sick few weeks ago, I craved for egg tart.  As soon as I got well, I tried making it and it was really good.  And you know, it was easy.  I enjoyed molding the dough in tart molds.  And the filling was no brainer either.  Try it and surely you will enjoy doing it.  You may adjust the sweetness if you prefer more sweet for the filling.  The sweetness of the tart is already perfect,  so better not to adjust anymore.  So here’s how...

For the tart, you will need:

• 200g all-purpose flour or whole wheat flour
• 50g sugar
• 100g butter
• 1 egg

What to do:

1. In mixing bowl, combine flour and sugar.  Mix. 
2. Add the butter and press it with fork or use your clean hands to combine.  Then add the beaten egg.  The mixture should be slightly moist.  (If its too moist try adding flour and if dry try adding a bit of water). 
3. Knead the dough from the mixing bowl until soft.
4. Shape dough to and inch of a ball  (depends on the size of your egg tart).  Press it on the middle of tart molder and use your two thumbs while shaping to molder while the dough goes up to cover the sides.  Make sure the bottom of tart as well as the sides are thin.  Remove excess dough from sides. 
5. Punch hole of the tart using fork.  Set aside.

Preheat oven to 160C.

For the filling, you need:

• 5 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1/2 cup evaporated milk (non-fat)
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

What to do:

1. In a large measuring jar,  combine sugar and warm water.  Stir thoroughly. Add evaporated milk and eggs, stir again until combine.  Then add vanilla essence, stir.
2. Sieve the filling mixture twice in a strainer.
3. Pour the filling into tart molder. 
4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown and the filling is little bit puffed.