Cinnamon Rolls-LP8

Way too late for LP 8 but as they say, "better late than never". My daughter baked this for breakfast(eerrr, this should have been fit for LP 7). Anyway, she lifted this from Company's Coming (Breakfasts and Brunches Edition). Ha, I'm slowly catching up.

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter or hard margarine
3/4 cup milk

Filling

1/2 cup ground pecans
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
2 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp butter or hard margarine, melted

Glaze

3/4 cup Icing (confectioner's) sugar
4 tsp Milk
1/2 tsp Vanilla

measure first 5 ingredients into bowl. Cut in butter until crumbly.

Add milk. Stir to form a soft ball. Knead 8 times on lightly floured surface. Roll or pat into 10 x 15 inch rectangle.

Filling: Mix pecans, brown sugar and cinnamon in small bowl.

Brush dough with melted butter. Sprinkle with cinnamon mixture, keeping in from edges about 1/2 inch (12mm). Roll up from long side. Pinch seam to seal. Cut into 20 slices, 3/4 inch thick. Arrange on greased baking sheet, placing aout 1 inch apart. Bake in 400%F oven for 12 to 14 minutes until lightly browned.

Glaze: Stir icing sugar, milk and vanilla together in bowl, adding more icing sugar or milk as needed to make a consistency that can be barely poured. Drizzle, in pinwheel fashion, over buns while still warm. Makes 20.

Hello Dolly Bars

It's as easy as 1-2-3!

Ingredients:

1 cup of graham crumbs
1 cup of dessicated unsweetened coconut
1/2 cup butter (room temperature)
1/2 can of condensed milk
3/4 cup of chocolate chips
3/4 cup of chopped walnuts
3/4 cup of chopped pecan nuts
3/4 cup of toffee bits
3/4 cup of raisins
(substitute nuts with any nuts of your choice)

Combine crumbs, butter and dessicated coconut and press on bottom of an 8 x 8 pan. Layer nuts and chocolate chips evenly over crumbs. Drizzle condensed milk ovenly over top.

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until brown. Bake for 5 more minutes if you want chewy bars. Cool before serving.

Bistek

It does sound like beef steak but it isn't. Bistek is one famous recipe that Filipinos cook with their eyes closed. Did I just hear someone say that I lied? Well, I'd say most Filipinos know how to cook then.

You only need the following:

1 lb of beef tenderloin, thinly sliced
5 tbsp(or more depending on your taste) of soy sauce
3 tbsp of lemon juice
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1/2 tsp of ground pepper

Mix all ingredients together and marinate meat for about 15 minutes.

In a pan, fry the slices of meat. Ensure that the meat is not overcooked. Beef is always more tender if you cook it for a short while. Set aside. Save the juice that comes from the marinade and possibly from the pan when beef was fried.

In the same pan, saute coarsely chopped medium onion until translucent. Add meat and the juice to taste. Add green onions before serving.

Again, I am still catching up with Lasang Pinoy series and the truth is I had this for breakfast. No kidding! This is for you Jo, for my LP 7 entry. Is LP on its 15th now? Now I'm kidding.

Steamed Oysters (Talaba)

I should be ashamed of myself. I was the host of LP 6 and I wasn't able to come up with my own post. I actually had something ready but I wasn't able to post it on time. Oh well, I wanted a dramatic entrance. Yeah right, so much for the excuses.

Here's mine. I steamed a few oysters for hubby's imported Tanduay. (On the side, if you guys are thinking about what to bring me for pasalubong, a 10 year old Tanduay would do. A 15 year old one would even be better. One bottle is fine. Unfortunately, we have efficient customs officers here so much so that when I brought in 2 bottles of the 10 year old export quality amounting to about $5.00, I paid import tax of about $45.00. An individual can only bring 1.2 liters of alcohol tax free and each bottle of the cherished rhum is .70 L).

I digressed but it's all in the fun of having to prepare pulutan right? I must say that this might be the easiest to prepare. Just steam the oysters for about 10 minutes, just enough for the shucks to open. Then serve with lemon juice. Ooops, save the juice. Sip it like you would with a coffee. Yummy!

Simple enough? I thought so. Just don't forget the Tanduay for me when you come visit me. The oysters will be on me.

Pasta Salad

This is the most versatile recipe I ever had. It can be eaten hot or cold.

Ingredients:

2 cups of fusilli
1 lb of chicken breast, sliced in bite sizes
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup pitted black olives
1 medium zucchini, coarsely chopped
1 medium can of whole tomatoes
1 small can of tomato sauce
about 4 piesces of dried tomatoes in oil, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup of parmesan cheese

Cook pasta according to packaging instructions. Set aside.

In a pan, cook chicken meat for about 5 minutes or until chicken is cooked. Add onions, olives and zucchini and cook for about 3 minutes. Add whole tomatoes, sliced dried tomatoes and tomato sauce. You can add cooking wine and balsamic vinegar if desired.

Mix sauce with pasta and sprinkle parmesan cheese on top. Chill for 2 hours is if eaten cold or serve right way.

Corned Beef with Cabbage

We Filipinos are so fond of corned beef. I grew up getting used to my corned beef sauteed in onions or tomatoes or sometimes both. Other times my mom cooked it with potatoes. Because in our backyard, we grew sayote abundantly (well, they actually keep on spouting out of nowhere, she tried adding sayote to our dear canned corned beef. Of course she never tried to force sayote on me.

Anyway, now that I am the official cook in my family, coming home late from work, I asked hubby to just cook anything in the fridge. He did with a little fear. He opened the cupboard and there was one can of corned beef waiting to be opened. He opened the fridge and there was another one, a cabbage head. Guess what we had for dinner? It wasn't that bad and I actually found a way of incorporating veggies in my children's meal.

Do I need to tell you how it's cooked?

Salmon Cake

Finally, I found a good recipe for a canned salmon a friend gave me a few months ago. My officemate has been raring to have us taste crab cakes from a store close to where she lives but on the day we were to have them, apparently, there were no crab cakes available. She brought in halibut fish cake instead.

I seem to have this talent of dissecting what's in a recipe as long as I see it physically and I get to taste it too. Well, I tried this and it wasn't too bad.

Ingredients:

400 gms of steamed or canned fish (deboned and flaked)
2 stalks of green onions, finely chopped
1 big potato, steamed and mashed (coarsely)
1/4 red pepper, finely chopped
1/4 yellow pepper, finely chopped
1/2 onion, coarsely chopped
2 eggs
3 tbsp of olive oil
salt to taste

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl.













Form the mixture into patties. Grill for about 10 minutes on each side. Serve with any salad. Spring mix is recommended.

LP 6: Let's wash it down with booze!!, the round-up!

(My first round-up went kaput. 'must have been during the time blogger techies were doing a maintenance. I had to redo this so if I missed anyone, please let me know).

And I thought I knew everything about pulutan. When I did the round-up of all the entries to LP6: Pulutan (Let's wash it down with Booze!), I was quite surprised how people were able to come up with different recipes I haven't even heard of. Sheer ingenuity, yes that is what "drinking" can really bring out in us.

In a very intimate way, pulutan really makes drinking enjoyable and I am sure most of the contributors to LP 6 do not drink. Without further ado, I would like to present to you the contributors to Lasang Pinoy 6. Please note that there is no particular order in the way I presented the contributors.

Let's start with our star Baby Rambutan with her Chitterlings. They're literally flowery pork intestines. Forget about what you're thinking. It's all worth it when You go and visit Stel's site.

Lutong Disyerto tweaked a tuna recipe he used to have on Saturday nights while in college. Find out how an ordinary skyflakes can make a century tuna appealing especially when you're tight with your budget.

JMom remembers her Dad's younger days when Kilawen na Kambing(goat) is the in thing.(Well, it still is). Having moved to North Carolina, goat meat has become a rarity. Just what can she come up with "when the goat is away"? I guess the chicken can now come into play..teehee..

From an Ilocano country, bagis to us was intestines. Well, in the Tagalog region, they call it otherwise. Find out from CeliaK's kitchen what it is.

Now this is Bagis to me, Iska's Adobong Isaw. My father used to cook this but is served dry. As I was reading Iska's, they do use the same ingredients.

When Lani said she was going to prepared adobong bayawak, she really had me twiddling my thumbs. Aside from bayawak being an endangered species, I have yet to see one even in pot. Guess what, I knew I was in for disappointment when she prepared kalderetang kambing instead. It's alright. I am still hoping that I will taste one soon.

'ever wondered why Joey's site is called ChichaJo? Well, it's all because of these crackling, deep fried pork rind that Joey describes sinful and yet satisfying..

Shrimps is a very versatile kind of food. They can fried and seasoned with salt. Yes, just like that. Mirsbin was more in the mood and came up with Shrimps with Sweet and Spicy Sauce

I have to warn you that this is not for the faint-hearted dog owners. No, Marketman did not cook his labrador for this event. Well, I was in for another dis

appointment when someone promised to give me an entry about his pulutan. I guess he was ready to give me one especially when he learned that this event was circulated world-wide. We do have dogs for pulutan but then again not everyone is into it. Marketman has his own take about pulutan when he said "I understand the argument against eating anything that is endangered or anything that appears to have more intelligence than many fellow humans, etc. but if you strip away a lot of the noise, it’s just protein, fat and calories. And for some reason, eating unusual protein or strange animal body parts is often accompanied by a beer or other alcoholic drink.". Really, sometimes it's the culture too.

And yes, they do have tuwalya and laman-lamanan in Antibes or is it in Greece? Well, both. Schatzli talks about how pinoy wherever they man be always have the knack for entertaining themselves with gusto.

Karen of course came up with Sisig Paro complete with explanation how its name came about.
Impress yourselves with Karen's entry. It definitely reminded me of the different terminologies we have of one thing despite the fact that we all are from one archipelago like the egg is called itlog in Baguio but once it reaches Pampanga, has become ebon.

Relly will surely break my kids' hearts when they find out about her Stewed Rabbit recipe. We own two dwarf rabbits that have perpetually looked like bunnies even after 5 years. I have to admit that my father used to cook adobong kuneho when I was young. Thanks Relly who is new to Lasang Pinoy.

Who can beat the most classic pulutan called pinapaitan? Kai has the talent to even come up with a very vivid description of how her townsfolk plan anything just to have kambing.

Full marks of course goes to Ces for coming up with Kilawen na Tuna. I do not know about you but I love raw fish and shrimps and I always get warned by my mother-in-law not to indulge so much in anything raw as my stomach might churn. But like Ces, this is my ultimate pulutan.

How my son prepares our sandwiches

Can you spot the difference?

My son has a very personalized way of preparing everyone's sandwiches at home. If there's one expert sandwich maker I have come to meet, it would be him

He prepares our sandwiches exactly the way we want ours to be. We all want meat, so the meat is on. He also knows exactly how to layer the vegetables so that the tomatoes wont make the bread slices soggy. The cheese should be on the other side to protect the pickles also from well...making the bread soggy.

Now here's the funny part. He puts as many or as little pickles as you want. Sometimes, when we have pickled jalapenos at home, he exactly knows who want jalapenos in theirs and how much. Isn't that neat?

Guess which one is mine?

Pata Tim

One more try on Pata Tim, this time, a diner friendly one. I had to debone the hocks since I had a few oldies for guests. I was also lucky to find "mustasa" from the Filipino store. You will have to pardon me because I actually cook without measuring my ingredients. We call this cooking talent "tancha-tancha" in Pilipino.

Maybe, I should just tell you how I cooked this. First, I boiled one big hock in a pot adding a few star anise seeds, soy sauce and brown sugar in it. I added about two cups of water. I was more generous with the brown sugar this time. I think I actually put about 1 cup of it. The soy sauce is of course depending on your taste but in mine, I might have added about 1/4 cup. Once it was tender, I asked hubby to debone the hocks so that the taste will stick to the meat. I had to simmer this on low heat for about 2 hours. In fact it is better to cook it in a slow cooker but I cannot remember why I didn't use mine that time.

Once it is tender or even better if it could melt right in your mouth, add the mustasa before serving. Do not overcook the mustasa. I made this a day earlier because with pata tim, the taste improves if left overnight in the fridge. Make sure though that the mustasa is added only upon serving.

Lasang Pinoy 6 : Let's wash it down with booze! !

(Logo courtesy of my kasaya, Mike Mina of Lafang)

With the holiday season over, I am sure you guys have a lot of stories to tell. Yes, the tender kilawen na kambing that your brother-in-law prepared, the sweet dilis you received as a present from a classmate, the inihaw na bangus you bought from Aling Vering and even the dinuguan when Mang Tomas butchered the pig for lechon.

In the Philippines, drinking is a past time, a way of unwinding (for the men anyway). It's a person's way of de-stressing from a hard day's knock. Not that it is not in other countries, but there is an added twist to how Filipinos enjoy drinking. More often than not, they always have a pulutan to go with their drinks. Sometimes, the reason why a drinking spree is unforgettable depends on how good the pulutan is. Only in the Pilipins, so they say!

So what exactly is a pulutan? Well, out of curiosity, I googled it but even wikipedia did not describe the way I have known pulutan to be. I shouldn't say that. It is a finger food alright but I am sure there is more to it than a finger food, literally. Maybe we should add to wikipedia's with an intimate description of it.

Pulutan is a kind of food that is served as accompaniment to a drink. It comes in different kinds like meat, fish, nuts, chips. It's prepared in different ways...raw, fried, steamed. Basically, it is anything that makes drinking enjoyable. Even a pet might start to look as a pulutan depending on the level of alcohol drinkers(I call them "bingeirs") have had but that is a different story I would not even like to touch.

Pulutan has evolved in a hundred ways. When I was young, I was made sure to understand that pulutan was only for men, drinking men--hands-off that saucer served in front of those drunk men. Of course there were no comprehensible reasons given to me and I wasn't allowed to ask why, lest I'd be sent to bed. In many occasions, I always ended up dreaming about how they tasted. Now that I have reached the age of reasoning, I believe that had the drinking men allowed me to eat their pulutan, I would have finished the pulutan all up before they even got drunk. Drinking wouldn't have been fun for them then.

As street-hawkers and restaurants mushroomed, so did the meaning of pulutan expand. Pulutan is now served as a delicacy and specialty in reputable restaurants, not as a pulutan per se but as appetizers. From a simple dinakdakan, evolved "crispy sisig". I couldn't even draw the line between ingenuity and poverty when it comes to pulutan anymore. The chicken feet that my father used to throw away when he cooked tinola are now delicacies called "Adidas" and you will find out from my round-up why. If you're walking down the streets and see IUD-like barbecues, well they are called IUDs indeed made out of chicken intestines. They do make drinking enjoyable whatever they're made out of.

So, let's not waste our time. Bring out all the pictures we took during the holidays to show-off how we enjoyed our boozes or bring out the pots and pans and cook one up if you haven't done one yet and let's re-live the holiday feeling over again.

Do you want to join? Here's how it works. Write your thoughts about pulutan on or before January 31. Post them in your blog and send me an e-mail at lasang.pinoy@gmail.com or ting_aling@hotmail.com so I could include you in my round-up. You don't need to be a Filipino to join. Yeah, tell us how your trip to the Philippines was, that's alright!

Take it away!!

Lasang Pinoy 5: Impromptu Christmas Dinner

Ola and cheers to everyone straight from the Philippines. Behind all the revelry, remind me next time not to go shopping for Noche Buena on December 24 itself. The que was just unending and you have to ready to stand behind the lines for an hour just to pay. But then again, our Christmas this year was something unusual. We just arrived from the province, tired from a celebration happening 2 days prior to Christmas eve. My brother's birthday is on the 24th so he was given the task of cooking for us. We were'nt difficult to please. Exhausted, we didn't mind whatever he prepared for us.

My sister who attended the grand celebration herself also had it. She wasn't ready to touch anything in the kitchen despite the fact that we were having the birthday celebration at my parents' house where she lives now. Father does not live there anymore. Since mother passed away, he decided to retire in the province, 6 hours away from the city. The cold water, the weather, the travels we had made us all contented with whatever was on the table. And oh, the helpers gone as well to celebrate Christmas with their families. (sigh!)

I decided to prepare something light myself. I bought a few pieces of Malaga and steamed them. I seasoned the fish with sauteed ginger, soy sauce, knorr seasoning and garnished it with finely chopped green onions. Brother prepared dinuguan from the lechon. My sister prepared lychees with gelatin and ordered a tray of macaroni for the kidlets.

Well, this was our Noche Buena but we had a better one the next day.

Kids were happier the next day. They got to meet cousins from afar and played different games. And this is how it is every year no matter where we are. Same place, same day and same time but maybe not the same people. The host never leaves her post for it has been a tradition as far as I can remember. We know where to go if we happen to be in Baguio on Christmas Eve and Day, for my family anyway.

Hors d' Oeuvres for everyone

Well friends, this might be my last post for this year depending on what kind of internet connection I will be getting in the Philippines.

I hope the prosciutto, smoked salmon and sushi(not to mention the wasabi) will all keep you inspired to keep cooking this season.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year. It's been a great year coming to know you all guys

Have a great one everyone!

Lasang Pinoy 4: Sotanghon--my all time soul food

I have been under a lot of stress lately, a family crisis (not in my family but in my clan); preparing for our trip to the Philippines; hubby undergoing minor surgery; and finishing up a big project at work. The family's food for the past 3 weeks were nothing but food bought from KFC, McDonald's, Wendy's and A & W. There were days I just had to give my son money to buy lunch from school. Yes, it was that bad. Didn't you notice it in my blog? Some did anyway.

This post is but an evidence of what I've gone through. Very timely indeed. I got through one crisis last Thursday and I told my hubby I needed a warm, home-cooked meal (aside from the warm hug I've been looking forward to). I wasn't keen on having rice. I wasn't keen on having soup either. I wanted to cook something that reminded me of home. Afterall, I was closely in contact with my aunts in the Philippines almost every hour that time. I tell you, the time difference was really killing me. Every hour counted.

Out of nowhere, I went to the Filipino store. Browsing, I could have bought stuff easy to cook..hmm like daing na bangus, canned corned beef..haha. But then, I missed my aunt and everytime I remembered her, she reminded me of her sotanghon. When I was young, sotanghon was always part of her "handa". When we had a reunion in New Jersey, she again cooked her sotanghon. When I was talking to her over the phone, she reminded me that when I go home, Christmas Day celebration was going to be at her house because it's been a tradition. At that point, the picture of her sotanghon recipe just flashed in my mind and I guess this is what drove me to go to the Filipino store.

Hibe and Tenga ng Daga was what made her sotanghon different from sotanghon recipes I've tasted. I had to go to another Filipino store to find hibe. Hubby asked me nonchalantly "I thought you don't want to cook?". Well, to cut the chase, I cut the vegetables on my own which I normally ask my kids to do for me on ordinary days. I cooked the sotanghon without any complaint. I ate at my own pace, my own time. Everyone was sensitive to one another's feelings. In my heart and mind, I knew my family was relieved..they had warm home-cooked meal and home felt home again.

Bulong Unas

My mother called this "bulong unas" (sugar cane leaf) because the fish resembles that of a sugar cane leaf. In Sto Tomas, La Union, they dry this fish like they normally would with all other fishes suited for drying. Once dried, you normally deep fry this to make it crunchy. It's so good especially if dipped in vinegar.

I like mine fresh though and I cook it the way I cook adobo. I add a little oil to prevent it fron sticking to the bottom of the pan. Soy Sauce, Vinegar, Black Pepper, Onions, a little bit of sugar (no water, please!) . Let it simmer on slow heat for about 15 minutes until it gets dry. Keep in the fridge overnight and eat it for lunch the next day. Now that's what I call a perfect meal.

Igado

One familiar recipe from almost any part of the Philippines. However, I believe that you have to have the right mixture of everything to get the right taste. I never tried to cook this until my family went to visit my brother in New Jersey. He's married to a Kapampangan but from what I gathered, my sister-in-law is not really good in cooking. He was counting on me to cook this with all the ingredients ready. He was quite surprised to find out I didn't know how to cook it so he had to cook it himself.

From our visit, my husband urged me to learn how to cook it. What was even well "insulting" was he wanted me to cook it the way his mom cooked it. I tried and I succeded!

Ingredients:

1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
1 lb of pork, thinly sliced
200 gms of kidney, thinly sliced
200 gms of liver, thinly sliced
200 gms of lungs
1 large potato, julienned
1/2 red pepper, julienned
1 small carrots, julienned
1/4 cup green peas
1/4 cup raisins or dried cranberries
5 tbsp of vinegar
soy sauce and salt to taste

Saute onion in a saucepan until onion becomes translucent. Add pork and simmer for about 10 minutes on medium heat. Add potato. Cook for another 2 minutes. Add carrots, pepper and raisins or cranberries adding only a small amount of water if necessary. Add kidney, liver and lungs vinegar and cover pan. Simmer for 10 minutes. Add green peas and cook for another 5 minutes.

Peanut Butter Cookies

You can count the number of times I bake. This is just one of the few. We're trying to cut on sugar and fat but we just can't resist this recipe from the Best of Bridge Series.

Ingredients:

1/3 cup butter or margarine
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
sugar for coating

Cream together butter and sugars. Add Peanut Buter and mix well. Add egg and then the dry ingredients. Roll into ball and then in sugar. Place on greased cookie sheet. Press flat with a fork. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Makes 3 dozen cookies.

Salay with Tausi

Called Yellow Striped Trevally, this fish simply called Salay in Pangasinan is one of my husband's favorites. He admits that it's one of the familiar fishes he knows his mom served him when he was growing up. You should have seen the glitter in his eyes when I brought home a pack one day from the Filipino Store.

Ingredients:

Oil for frying
1 lb of Salay, gutted and cleaned
1 can of Temple Black Beans (Tausi)
1/2 medium onions, coarsely chopped
1/8 cup of lemon juice
2 stalks of green onions finely chopped

Fry the salay in a frying pan and set aside. Pour water over black beans to rinse. On the same pan, saute onions until translucent. Add the black bean sauce and cook for about 2 minutes. Add the lemon and fried fish. Garnish with green onions and serve.

Antipasto

This appetizer was something I have tried from a friend's friend Donna. Over the years, I have been canning this for friends. Oh, they really are great christmas gifts for friends. However, I took a rest because this really entailed a lot of chopping. Choppers are no help either. Now that my kids are older and are now becoming good kitchen helpers, I am back to making this. In fact, my son had a great time chopping the ingredients with his special chopper from Alaska.

Ingredients

1 cup of olive oil
1 head of cauliflower, finely chopped
1 large green pepper, chopped
1 250 ml of pitted greed olives, chopped
1 can of mushroom stems, chopped
1 liter of mixed sweet pickles, chopped (save the liquid)
500 ml of hot mixed pickles , chopped)
750 ml of ketchup (quality)
1 can of anchovies, chopped
2 cans of solid tuna


Put all ingredients except tuna in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil. Simmer for about 20 minutes stirring occasionally. In the meantime, pour boiling water over the tuna to rinse. Add to mixture and simmer for 10 more minutes.Serve with crackers.

To process, make sure that your jars are sterilized. Pour cooked antipasto in jars and let boil in a large pot. Make sure that water is tree quarters of the way up the jars. Boil for at least 20 minutes. Once cool, tighten lids and store in cool dry place.

Canning

So what have I been doing last weekend? I canned antipasto, Bangus in Olive Oil and Salmon in Olive Oil.

Canning of Antipasto was something I learned from a friend's friend and the Bangus and Salmon were just something I thought could be done after observing that they're sold in stores. Oppss, just the bangus. The salmon was something suggested by another friend. The antipasto recipe will follow very soon.

Processing food is not something you should dread as long as you're following the instructions properly. One thing I found out is you can only can freshly cooked food. Make sure that you boil the jars with the food in them for over 20 minutes. Especially with the Bangus and the Salmon, make sure that the mouths of the jars are free from oil drippings when putting fish in the jar before putting the lids on. You will definitely have a hard time sealing the lids if you don't wipe the oil drippings.