Green Mango Shake

My favorite shake!
It's very refreshing specially this summer!

1 cup green mango, cubed
1 cup water
some crushed ice
1 tablespoon honey

In a blender, combine green mango and water.
Process until smooth.
Pour in honey.
Add crushed ice.
Blend again until smooth.

Chill further before serving.

Sugar syrup can be used instead of honey.
To make sugar syrup, just boil brown sugar in water.
Set aside and cool.

Coconut Cookies

 Back in the Philippines, I used to eat a lot of coconut in our food. For instance, coconut milk in chicken, beef, or fish and even for desserts or snacks. Back then every coconut is fresh, I remember the time consumed in just one coconut. From breaking, grating, and squeezing  were all made by hand. Unlike today, it's very convenient we can buy coconut milk  or grated coconut in the supermarket. But I think, anything fresh is still good!

Anyways, it's the last Potluck Sunday for May, this time I'm bringing Coconut Cookies for everyone. I adapted the recipe from a Taiwanese Cookbook. I used brown sugar instead of ordinary white one.The taste seems like coconut macaroons I used to eat back home. I think I made it right! It's crunchy and chewy!

Ingredients:
90g sifted cake flour
120g grated coconut
1 egg, slightly beaten
70g butter, room temperature
30g milk powder
30g brown sugar

 In a bowl, beat butter and brown sugar gradually, until mixture looks pale and smooth. Add beaten egg into the mixture, mixing gradually. Add milk powder and mix. Add cake flour into the mixture, followed by grated coconuts.
Combine mixture using hand gently. Roll the dough into a small balls and coat on grated coconuts (extra ingredient). Arrange on a baking tray and bake at 180°C for 15-20 minutes.

I borught like 20 pieces in the Church, my friends couldn't resist and immediately ate them and asking me, if there are more. They told me to bring more next time. For me, that's one way of appreciating my baking (it's kind of inspiring), better than last week about the Green Tea Cookies. :) Learning by doing is really fun!

Have a nice week ahead of you!

See you next Potluck Sunday!

*****

Filipino Beef Steak

Another famous dish in the Philippines is called "Bistek", meaning Beef Steak. As usual different region has different ways to prepare it. The common ingredients are beef, calamsi juice, onion, and soy sauce. Since I only have lime, I used lime instead of calamsi. Here it is:

1/2 kilo beef

1 white onion, sliced into rings

2 tablespoon lime juice

1/2 cup water

soy sauce

bay leaf

Cut beef across the grain into 2-inch portions.

Put water, soy sauce and bay leaf in a saucepan.

Cook beef in this mixture over medium heat.

When the meat is slightly tender, pour in lime juice. Simmer.

Add onion rings before removing from heat.

Since I don't have any vegetables that day,

I got  fresh tomato for side dish.

OK, here it is! Let's eat!

My hubby cooked this one, he marinated the beef

with soy sauce and calamansi juice over night.

Scallops and Coloful Pepper Noodles

In this dish, any noodles will do. I used mung bean vermicelli since that's the only available in my pantry. In Taiwan, cold noodles are very popular during summer. After I cooked one package of vermicelli, I soaked it in ice water. Drained and saved the left-over in the refrigerator. The scallops in this recipe was marinated in wine to soften and get rid of unpleasant smell.

Ingredients:
vermicelli (or any kind f noodles)
1/4 green pepper, sliced
1/4 yellow pepper, sliced
1/4 red pepper, sliced
1/4 orange pepper (if any)
2 stalk scallion, sliced
some scallops
some pork or chicken, shredded

Seasonings:
soysauce
cornstarch in water
black pepper
olive oil
pepper powder (optional)
spice oil (optional)

Boil water, and add noodles as instructed in a package. Drain and set aside.
Marinate chicken (or pork) in 1/2 tablespoon soysauce, corstarch in water, and pepper powder (or spice oil) for at least 5 minutes.
Rinse scallops and marinate in 1 tablespoon wine for 5 minutes. Sprinkle some cornstarch and blanch scallops into boiling water, drain.
In a pan, heat oil and saute shredded chicken (or pork), scallions and all peppers. Add some water and 1 tablespoon soysauce and pepper powder. Add noodles and mix well until the soup dried.

Tomato and Cheese Pizza

OK, again my oven toaster is very useful! This time I made pizza for a change and I think there will be more pizza coming, I just love it!

Ingredients for the Pizza Dough:
100g bread flour (I used whole wheat)
50g cake flour
100ml water
1/4 tablespoon sugar
1/4 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon dry yeast
15g unsalted butter
Ingredients for Tomato Sauce:
10g butter
100g onion, chopped
200g tomato, skinless and chopped
salt
black pepper
sugar
Italian Seasoning
tomato sauce (optional)

For the Toppings:
1big tomato, sliced
200g mozzarella cheese

To make the dough, combine flour, sugar, salt, water and yeast in a bowl. Whisk. Add  butter, and knead until dough becomes elastic. Cover with plastic wrap, set in a warm temperature place for first rise for 20 minutes. When the dough double its size, take out and knead out air bubbles. Rest for another 20 minutes for the second fermentation. 

Meanwhile, prepare the tomato sauce by sauteing the onion in butter until fragrant. Add black pepper and Italian seasoning, stir well. Add tomato dice, sugar and tomato sauce. Simmer mixture until liquid dries out, season with salt to taste.

When the dough is ready to use, place the dough in a pizza pan and roll out. Spread tomato sauce evenly. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese all over it, place sliced fresh tomato, then sprinkle again with mozzarella cheese.

Bake for 25-30 minutes in a 185°C.

I like it a little bit burnt.

Here, have some slices of my first pizza ever made!

Dip: Fermented Salted Fish with Liver Spread

In the Philippines, if there's fried fish in a meal there will be a common side dish either salted eggs with tomato or green mango with fermented fish/shrimp paste dip. But I never thought liver spread can be added to fermented salted fish (bagoong). My friend Eva gave me this recipe and for me it really taste good. It's not salty at all!

3 tablespoon fermented fish
1 small can liver spread
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 small onion, chopped
1 teaspoon vinegar (I used lemon)
dash of sugar
water (if too dry)

In a pan, heat 1 teaspoon oil and saute garlic and onion.

Add liver spread and fermented fish. Add vinegar, water and sugar. Mix well.  Serve with green mango.

Here's a sample of how we eat mango with fermented fish dip with meal. My husband cooked this in Las Vegas and sent it to me the day I was making the fermented fish dip.

Kain na! (Let's eat!)

Submitted to:

Chicken Temaki

No exact recipe! I just have left-over chicken, romaine lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and dried seaweed wrapper (nori). Slice all the ingredient, spread some mayonnaise and wrap it with nori. A very light and delicious meal or snack.

Bitter Gourd with Salted Eggs

White bitter gourd is common here in Taiwan. I saw some fruit shake stands selling bitter gourd shake and I never tried them yet. I'm afraid, I'm not gonna like it! But given the chance, I would like to try it! ;). This recipe is taken from my cookbook All About Eggs. I added tuna flakes instead of dried shrimps.

Ingredients:
1 bitter gourd, sliced
2 cooked salted eggs, cubed
1/2 tablespoon dried shrimps (tuna flakes)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 red chili pepper, sliced
salt and pepper
some sugar

In a pan, heat 2 tablespoon oil and saute garlic, dried shrimps until fragrant. Stir in salted eggs and fry until foamy (If the salted egg is too salty, don't add 1 egg white). Add bitter gourd and combine well. Add some water and seasonings. Stir well and scatter over the chili. Serve.

Note: If the bitter gourd is too bitter, blanch in boiling water with salt.

Cold Noodles with Beef

Vietnamese Style, only I used Mung bean Noodles instead of Vietnamese Rice Noodles. I like eating cold noodles specially summer time and I'll be featuring some of cold noodles I've tried before. I got this recipe from my cookbook All About Rice and Noodles, but I didn't add beansprout and fresh basil leaves.

Ingredients:

1/4 onion, shredded

1 small cucumber, shredded
3 tablespoon peanuts, chopped
100g thinly sliced beef
150g rice noodles (mung bean noodles)

Seasonings:
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon sugar

some chopped red chili
some chopped garlic
2 tablespoon stock or water

Heat water, add the mung bean noodles and cooked as directed in a package. Remove, drain, and soaked in ice water (or tap water). Drain dry. Combine seasonings in a bowl, you can adjust the seasonings according to taste, set aside. In a pan, heat 1 tablespoon of oil and fry onion briefly, then add beef. Add salt and pepper to taste and keep frying until cooked. Set aside. Place some cold noodles in a bowl, top with beef and cucumber. Drizzle over seasonings and scatter peanuts on top.

Creme Brulee (No Caramel)

I would want to prove once again if I could bake pudding custard in my oven toaster, and yes I did it again! My toaster timer is only up to 15 minutes, so what I did was to preheat it  for 15 minutes, and steam bath baking the pudding for about an hour. I like the toppings a little bit burnt, well that's what Crème Brûlée  means. I also used sugar substitute and low-fat milk. I could not find vanilla pod in the supermarket, only the one in packs. I made about 5 servings.

340g fresh low-fat milk
70g sugar (1/2 cup substitute sugar)
4 egg yolks
1 vanilla powder
4.5g vanilla power

Add vanilla to a milk and bring it boil, set aside. Combine egg yolks and sugar in a bowl, and mix well. Add the mix eggyolk mixture into the milk. Whisk to blend. Strain the mixture, then pour into the ramekins.
Add water into shallow tray and put the ramekins in it, bake it for about an hour. Let it cool, place the pudding in the refrigerator to chill. Serve.

Green Tea Cookies

For Sunday Potluck, I'm bringing Green Tea Cookies (baked in an oven toaster) for everyone. Actually, I really wanted to make Checkerboard Cookies (green tea and chocolate flavor), maybe next time.

200g cake flour
90g powder sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
50ml egg white ( about 2 small eggs)
30g milk powder
100g butter
10g tea powder

In a bowl, combine cake flour, green tea and milk powder.

Whisk sugar and salt into butter until pale and smooth.

Add egg white into bowl gradually.

Combine fluffy butter into flour mixture.
Mix gently by hand to form dough.
Cover the dough with plastic wrapper and freeze for 30 minutes.
Remove the dough from the freezer, divide into small portions.
Roll into a ball,  arrange in a baking pan and press gently in the middle.
Bake at 185°C for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

The cookies are kind of hard but taste creamy!

(that's what my friends in our church told me)

See you next Potluck Sunday!

*****

Chicken and Papaya Soup

One of the famous dish soup in the Philippines is called Tinola or Chicken Soup with Papaya. Actually, I made this without recipe, I just prepared 1 chicken breast fillet, 1/2 green papaya, some ginger, salt and pepper, drop of fish sauce, and dash of chili powder. First, I sauteed the chicken and ginger, then added water to boil. Add the green papaya, and seasoned. In the original recipe, chili leaves are included. Mostly, the chicken added should have bones and skin. This time I used breast fillet and its not that tastier than I tasted before. Still, it's very healthy!

Cabbage Dumplings

Meatless meal for today! I have left over 1/4 head of cabbage and some dumplings wrapper, why not make them into dumplings. Egg can be added too, but I skip that one. I sauteed first the shredded cabbage in a butter, seasoned with salt and pepper. Let it cool, then scoop 1 tablespoon of cabbage filling into the wrapper. Then fold the the dumplings, and sealed. Place in the steamer and steam for about 10 minutes or until the wrappers become transparent.

Papaya Sherbet

Another adapted recipe from Food Magazine (May Edition) is Papaya Sherbet.

1 ripe papaya, chopped

1/2 cup lemon juice

In a blender, puree papaya with lemon juice and blend until smooth. Pour mixture into a glass bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze for 2 hours or until semi-frozen.  With a hand mixer, whisk papaya mixture until smooth. Cover then freeze just until set. Whisk papaya mixture again. Freeze until ready to serve. Scoop into balls and garnish with mint leaves (optional).

I also made some into a popsicle, great to cool down this summer!

Tomato Bruschetta

6 pieces slice french bread

100g fresh tomatoes, diced

10g fresh basil, chopped

15g garlic, sliced

1 tablespoon lemon (balsamic vinaigrette)

1 tablespoon olive oil

salt and pepper

Toast the french bread or bake until dried. In a bowl, toss together tomatoes, basil, and garlic. Season with lemon, olive oil, salt and pepper. Marinate for 10 minutes. Strain extra juice the the marinate. Place a spoonful of tomato mixture on top of French bread and sprinkle with sesame seed (optional).

Actually, I heated the tomato mixture (as seen in the picture) just for few minutes before I place on top of the French bread.

Peas and Potato Cream Soup

100g potato ( 1 small)
30g green peas (1/2 cup)
10g celery (1 stalk)
40g fresh milk (I used 1cup law fat)
salt and pepper
bread bowl (optional)

Dice potato and celery. Steam all the potato, green peas and celery until cook. Put potato, celery, green peas and fresh milk in a blender. Blend with slow speed, season with salt and pepper. Serve in a bowl or bread bowl.

Beef Okonomiyaki

Beef Japanese Pancake

1 cup flour

1 egg

3/4 stock or water

1 1/2 cups shredded cabbage

1/2 cup sliced beef

some tuna flakes

sweet soy sauce or mayonnaise

In a bowl, make the batter by combining flour, egg, and water. Mix well to form a batter but make sure that the consistency is very smooth. Mix in the cabbage and sliced meat together. Scoop one mixture onto a heated round frying pan. Make sure the batter spreads through the pan to form the pancake. Cook until lightly brown. Flip and cook the other side. Remove from a plate and top off with any toppings you like. (Tomie Tanaka-Galarpe)

I tried making Japanese Pancake or Okonomiyaki using both whole wheat flour and plain flour. I followed the recipe from Food Magazine (May) except I cooked the beef separately before I added to the batter., my pancake didn't turn the way it should be. I think there's a technique when cooking it, I saw it in one of my favorite Okonomiyaki Store in Shinkong Mitsukoshi. They used a moulder and kept mixing the batter while cooking in a flat surface. Added the cooked beef on top of the batter and flip. When it's ready to flip, an egg was added so it will be the base of the pancake. Top off with mayonnaise, seaweed powder and fish flakes on top. The sauce was added around the pancake.

 Here are the two photos I've taken:

Okonomiyaki from Mitsukoshi

Inside the Okonomiyaki

I'll try to cook this again some other time!

Boiled Egg Yolk Cookies

I'm bringing this for Potluck Sunday!



Boiled Egg Yolk



My very first baked cookies in an oven toaster!

100g sifted cake flour
100g corn starch
100g butter, soften (room temperature)
50g sugar powder (or less)
20g milk powder
1g salt
3 boiled egg yolks, sifted

Combine butter, sugar, and salt in a bowl and beat until fluffy. Add boiled eggs, sifted flour and mix using hands to form a dough. Wrap the dough and chill it for an hour. Flatten the dough and cut shapes with a cookie cutter. Place colofrul    chocolate in the middle (optional). Bake at 160°C for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

If I want to learn how to cook, Ishould learn how to bake! Yes, I don't have any experience in baking. I used to assist my older sister when she's baking, but that's all! I thought it would be impossible since I only have an oven toaster, only 10 cookies fit in a tray. In this recipe, I made 30 pieces of cookies meaning I had 3 batches to bake. I was happy I made them all in an hour! I guess, more baking to come...

See you on Potluck Sunday!

*****

Blueberry-Cheese Icing Cake

Take note: This blueberry-cheese cake is not from the scratch!

I bought a plain chiffon cake and thought of making a blueberry cream icing that is not too sweet. Please don't mind how it looks like (my first time), but it really taste good! Anyways, here's what I did.

1 store-bought plain chiffon cake

1 (8 oz) cream cheese

1 all purpose cream

5 tablespoon butter, soft

5 tablespoon milk

2 tablespoon blueberry extract

In a bowl, combine all the ingredients until smooth. Cut the chiffon cake into three, then spread the blueberry cream on the bottom layer. Do the same with the middle and top layer. Chill before serving!

I'm dedicating this cake to my niece's baby son, he just came out of this world on May 15, 2010! I should say he's my grandson... but for sure he will call me Aunt! :)