KCC: Birthday Party Food - UBE CAKE

January is a special month for me, because it's my birthday month! My 7 yr old son was also born in January a few days before mine, and ever since he was born we tend to focus now on his birthday wishes, like what kind of theme for his party, who to invite to his party or what kind of cake to have.  So unfortunately, I end up spending days making his boy-themed cakes and planning his parties.  If I had a chance to make party food request this year, I'd have special two: my mom's kare-kare and the other is ube cake.  My mom is a great cook, but cakes aren't her forte so I'd let her spoil me by making my ultimate favourite dish.  The cake-making would be left to myself even on my birthday.  I got to admit, I do long for Red Ribbon's Ube cake, but because I can't have that here I have to try making it from scratch.

My aunt sent me a few bottles of McCormick Ube flavouring from the Philippines.  It's purple coloured essence, so you don't have to add food colouring.  If you can't avail of it then you can try using yam essence (try oriental stores) and add the purple food colouring yourself. 

1 cup        cake flour, sifted
3/4 cup      caster sugar
1 tsp        baking powder
1/4  tsp      salt
1/3 cup      canola oil
4              eggs, separated
1/3 cup     water
1 tsp        ube flavouring
1/4 cup     milk
1/4 tsp      cream of tartar
1^1/2 cup   cream
1/4 cup     icing sugar, sifted
1/2 tsp     ube flavouring or purple food colouring

• Preheat oven to 180C (not fan-forced) oven, and line 1 (9-inch) round pan or 2 (6-inch) round pan
• Sift together cake flour, 1/4 cup sugar, baking powder and salt.
• In another bowl, whisk oil, egg yolks, water, ube flavouring and milk. 
• Gently blend the egg mixture to the cake flour until smooth, being careful not to over beat.
• Whisk the egg whites and the cream of tartar until frothy. Set mixer on highest speed, and gradually add 1/2 cup of caster sugar.
• Gently fold the ube mixture into the eggwhites.
• Pour batter in pans and bake for 20 to 25 minutes until done. To test, insert skewer into cake and it should come out clean.
• Let the cakes cool in pan for five minutes then invert on rack to cool completely
• For the frosting, whip the cream, ube flavour (or purple colouring) and gradually add the icing sugar until stiff peaks form.
• To assemble, split the cake in half. Trim the top of cake to make it flat and even.  Place the trimmings in a food processor and set aside.
• Spread whipped cream on one cake layer and top with the second layer. Frost all sides and top of cake. Sprinkle cake crumbs on sides and top. Decorate with piped cream to finish.

Alternative:  Add strips of macapuno in the centre of cake to make ube-macapuno cake.

PS. Here's my mom's Kare-Kare and I ate so much of it with bagoong!

KCC: Releno - Stuffed Red Chili

When I was younger, my Mom used to stuff red bell peppers with pork mince, and I never liked them. I found the bell pepper too thick and too strong tasting even with dashings of ketchup.  Whilst shopping today, I wondered if I could recreate the dish I despise with something of sweeter taste, like the long sweet red chillies.  The size of the chilli didn't scare me, because heat and size are inversely related to each other. 

So, I tried it with the recipe that follows below, and I surprised myself that I enjoyed it very much. The chillies weren't hot and gave a hint of sweetness. Because the chillies were flat, it was very easy to pan fry them (actually burnt the bottom but that gave more flavour) and meat to red chilli ratio was just right.

STUFFED RED CHILLIES

2 long red chillies
200 g lean pork mince
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 small tomato
1 tsp soy sauce
black pepper and salt
1 egg, beaten

Saute the garlic and tomatoes. Add the pork and seasonings, and brown until cooked. Take off from heat. Split the two chillies lengthwise, and remove seeds.  Add the beaten egg to cooled meat filling.  Spread a quarter of the meat mixture on one chilli half.  Just before pan frying, dust the meat filling with cornflour.  Place a lid over the frying pan to assist cooking the chillies. Flip carefully to cook the meat side.

KCC - Baked Lumpiang Shanghai

My two young boys both love lumpiang shanghai, and who wouldn't when it's super crunchy when fried. However, I rarely cook that now, because I want to prepare healthier (low fat) options for them. So, I took this KCC opportunity to experiment on cooking a healthier version of this favourite fried dish - Baked Lumpiang Shanghai.

For the recipe, follow my first post of lumpiang shanghai here. Lightly brush the spring roll wrapper with canola oil. Place meat mixture (about as thick as a thumb) at the bottom edge of wrapper and roll. Position the spring rolls over a rack (so that they won't sweat and stick on tray) on a baking tray, and ensure to leave space in between the spring rolls. I brushed the spring rolls with oil to help it brown, but I found that it didn't really brown much. Perhaps next time brushing with beaten egg will give more brown results. Bake in 180C oven for 10-15 min.

The verdict: The outside and ends are crispy, but the inside was not as crunchy as I hoped. My two young boys ate them like they didn't know the difference between baked and fried, and they'll like them as long as they eat them with tomato sauce (ketchup). Overall, I'm pleased with the experiment, because a) for 1/2 kg meat mixture (or 20 spring rolls) I only used 1.5 Tb of oil for brushing and b) my house didn't smell of fried oil the whole night.

Kulinarya Cooking Club  - August Challenge (Lumpia)

Kulinarya Cooking Club - Lola's Pancit

Here's my very first challenge for Kulinarya Cooking Club, and I already have a confession to make: I'm a rice girl!  I love rice and from time to time love things eaten with bread or with pasta, but I hardly look forward to eating asian noodles.  Only in the last few years that I've been cooking noodles, because I've been exposed and drawn to the spicy and flavoursome Malaysian/Singaporean noodle dishes, like laksa, char keow teow, mamak mee goreng and mee siam.  My children, on the other hand, love ALL noodles, so I'll post here my mom's pancit that she cooks for my children.  

3 cakes of fried yellow noodles*(Ayam brand)
100 g sotanghon
2 cups of shredded cooked chicken breast or chicken meat from frames
1 L chicken stock**
5 cups cabbage, shredded
2 carrots, julienned
1 brown onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 T fish sauce
2 T soy sauce
white or black pepper
and of course calamansi (or lemon) to serve

Saute garlic and onion.  Add the vegetables and chicken. Set aside.  Place chicken stock in pot and add the instant noodles one at a time until it partially softens. Do the same for the sotanghon.  Once all the noodles are partially cooked, transfer everything in the pot. Season and cook a little longer together until noodles are cooked and the stock evaporates until noodles are not too wet. Be careful not to over mix and over cook otherwise the noodles will break.

* instant noodles that come without the seasonings
**chicken stock: Boil 3 chicken frames/bones in approximately 1.5 L of water. Once it boils, lower heat to simmer for an hour. Collect chicken meat from the bones and put aside. Strain the chicken stock, and place in refrigerator until fat settles and solidifies. Discard solidified fat.

Nilagang baka (Beef soup)

I think this version of Nilagang baka must be my mom's parents', because her brother cooks it too just as nice as how my mom does it. I love it on cool nights to warm me up.

PS. After hearing from my mom's sister that Matt loved it with mushrooms, I thought I'd better add them too to make him happy!

1 kg beef bones for soup
1 bulb garlic, peeled
1 L water
1 tsp salt
1 T fish sauce
2 bunches choy sam (pechay)
100 g button mushrooms, halved

Add all ingredients together. Let the beef boil and simmer for 2 hours until the meat is very tender. Cut off available meat from the bones and throw back in the pot. Remove as much fat from the broth (or chill the soup and remove fat that solidified). Cook the vegetables for 2 minutes or until tender.

Source: Jen-at-work original

Lumpiang Shanghai (Pork spring rolls)

A Filipino dish I often found in our family gatherings and parties. We loved them when we were kids!






Lumpiang Shanghai:

500 g lean minced pork
80 g carrots, grated or finely chopped
60 g onion, finely chopped
2 eggs
1 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
20 spring roll wrappers (approx 20cm x 20cm)
canola oil for frying

Sweet & Sour Sauce:

1/4 c vinegar
1/4 c sugar
1/2 c water
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp soy sauce
2 tsp cornstarch
2 T tomato sauce (ketchup)
chilli flakes (optional)

Mix pork, eggs, carrots, onions and seasonings together. On one edge of the wrapper, spread the filling until it is approximately as thick as a finger in width. Roll up the wrapper like a long cigar, and moisten the opposite edge to seal the lumpia.

Fry in a shallow pan with oil enough to cover about 1/2 of the thickness of the lumpia rolls. When brown, flip to cook the other side. Drain well on paper towels and cut into 6cm long pieces

Sauce:

Mix all ingredients in a saucepan and cook until it changes in colour and thickens.

Storage/Re-heating: Lumpiang Shanghai can be frozen uncooked. To reheat, simply place in an oven tray and heat under the grill.

Source: Jen-at-work original

Rockmelon juice

Mom used to make this drink for us when we were younger in the Philippines. I'm glad that we can easily get tropical fruits here to enjoy this! To do this, you need to use a special kitchen tool (a bigger version of a lemon zester) to scrape the rockmelon flesh into long strands. I hope that tool's available in oriental stores, for I got mine from Manila.

Juice it way:
Place all scrapings and juices in a jug, add more water and sweeten to taste. Add ice cubes. A perfect way to cool down in summer!