Cravings part 2: Mocha Chiffon Crunch with Caramel Buttercream frosting

Another rainy day crazy craving: sweets!

Don't you just have them, too?  But since there was an extended blackout, I just had to console myself with fruits but it wasn't working.  I still want a fluffy, really sweet cake to satiate my cravings.  Though it could be done, the thought of hand beating eggwhites until stiff was out of the question. I just had to wait  until I could use my trusty mixer.

After a few boring hours, at last its back! Hurray! I was still mentally debating what to bake until finally deciding to make a mocha chiffon.  I tried to use brewed Barako (a coffee variety native here) but the taste was too subtle, I had to add in powdered instant coffee.   Wasn't able to decorate this last night so I iced this the following day. I thought of doing some fancy shamanzy icing but its a work day so had to contend with caramel buttercream.  I still had leftover orange flavored whipped cream and caramelized sugar with cashews from last weekend's project so I just incorporated it into this cake project.  How can anyone go wrong with chiffon, coffee and caramel? :)

Mocha Chiffon Crunch with Caramel Buttercream frosting
 

Cake (from a Heny Sison cake class I attended with some changes)
1 1/4 cups cake flour, sifted
1 tablespoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 c vegetable oil (I used coconut oil for this)
1 tablespoon instant coffee dissolved in 3/4 c water
7 egg yolks
1 c egg whites
1/2 c sugar
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar


1. Preheat to 325F
2. Grease or line with wax paper two 9 1/2 inch round pans
3. Sift flour, baking powder, salt and 1 cup water.  Add the oil, egg yolks and water with coffee.  Blend until incorporated.
4. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites, cream of tartar and the 1/2 c sugar.  Beat until stiff.
5. Fold in the egg yold mixture into the eggwhites.  Pour into prepared pans and bake.
6. Bake for 30-45 mins or until done.



Caramel Buttercream frosting
25 g Water
185 g White sugar

50 g Water
35 g Whipping Cream
5 g Coffee Extract


1 egg yolk
300 g butter, softened


1.  Cook the 25 g water and white sugar to caramel stage (when the mixture turns golden brown, you can take it off the heat).
2.  Let it cool to 120 deg C and add the 50 g water and cream.  Be careful, it will produce steam.
3.  Add in the coffee extract.
4. Whip the egg yolk until light yellow in color then add in the caramel mixture.  Cool this to 30 deg C.
5. Whip in a third of the butter.  When this has been mixed, whip in the rest of the butter.

Cashew Crunch
1. Melt about 3/4 c of sugar to light golden brown and pour it into a silicon-lined baking pan. (You have to be careful when handling hot sugar, sugar burns are nasty ).
2. Tilt the pan from side to side to spread it more thinly then sprinkle about 1/4 c of cashew.  When cool, chop it into small pieces. 

To assemble:
1. Cut each cake rounds into two.  Spread a thin layer of the icing on each of the layers.
2.  Cover the whole cake with more of the icing.  If you want, you can also whip some whipping cream with a bit of sugar and pipe mounds on top of cake.  
3. As a finishing touch, sprinkle some of the cashew crunch.
 

Cravings on a Dreary, Rainy Day

There was a typhoon and didn't even know it was signal no.2 already.  So, I drove to the office but came home after a few hours when I realized that 1) no one came to the office except one and 2) I might get stranded if I stay until 6pm.  

So, I came home unexpectedly to a dark house (no electricity) and no lunch set on the table.  Ok, no biggie.  I just have to whip up something that's using ingredients already in the house in 15 mins or less.  

Then I remembered my little piece of heaven in a bottle, my forgotten white truffle oil. Everything seems to taste better with a drop, really. What can I say, its culinary magic.

So, I started cooking the pasta and while this was boiling in the pot, I began making my version of Alfredo sauce. In less than 15 minutes, both pasta and sauce were ready.  I added a few pieces of Spanish sardines and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese on top and once again, I was in truffle heaven :)

While still waiting for the electricity to come back and nothing to do but wait for the weather to improve, I styled and shot this using two plates.  Which do you think looked better?  :)

Spanish Sardine Spaghetti in White Truffle Sauce

Approximately 5 pieces Spanish sardines in oil (you can keep it whole or break it into chunks)

200 g spaghetti, cooked as directed

8 cloves of garlic, pounded 

3 slices of bacon, cut 1 inch thick

1 Tbsp of butter

4 pieces of fresh shitake mushrooms(leftovers from last weekend), sliced into slivers

1 Nestle All Purpose cream

1 Nestle heavy cream can

1/4 c water

1/4 tsp of white or black pepper

1 pc of laurel leaf

1/8 tsp of nutmeg

iodized salt to taste

Parmesan cheese, grated 

1/4 tsp white truffle oil (I used Sabatino Tartufi)

1. Cook bacon until crisp. Lower the heat then add the butter and garlic.  Fry till fragrant.

2. Add in the shitake and saute for about 2 minutes.

3. Add both creams, 1/4 c water and the rest of the ingredients except parmesan and truffle oil.  Cook until thickened, about 5 minutes.  Remove from fire.  Add drops of truffle oil.

4. To assemble, top some of the cooked spaghetti with the pasta sauce and spanish sardines.  To finish, generously sprinkle with parmesan.

Enjoy!

The long awaited Pizza post

Its been a few months since I tried making pizza but let me write this lest I forget how I did it.

After my pizza failures, i tried making it 3 more times, talk about persistence, right? After my no-knead pizza failure, I began looking for another pizza crust recipe and found this by Heny Sison: http://www.yummy.ph/recipe/Pizza-Dough.  Seems easy enough.  

I used the bottom of a large clay pot to serve as my pizza stone since I didn't have one and I read somewhere that you can use clay tiles instead.  What I forgot to do, though, is preheat the pizza stone before topping the pizza with the sauce and dried meats.  Huge mistake!  Even after baking the pizza for 20 minutes, the middle part was really soggy that it fell apart when served.  Yikes!  I knew I had to repeat this the following week, I just can't let it defeat me, right? 


So, on with pizza 3 and 4. From previous pizza attempts I made the following adjustments:


1. Preheated the oven at 425- 450F.  (The recipe didn't set a time)
2. Preheated the pizza stone in the oven for 10 minutes before baking the crust on it.
3. Sprinkled some flour on the pizza stone if the crust is kinda moist.  This prevents the crust from sticking.
4. Parbaked the crust for 5 minutes in a preheated oven before smothering it with sauce and toppings.
5. Baked the pizza with the toppings for another 10 to 12 minutes.  Do not overbake.  
6. Spread some butter or oil to the crust before spreading the pizza sauce.  It makes the crust less prone to sogginess.
7. Used a different flour. For some reason, this pizza flour seems to work. Found it in a supermarket but I'm sure our usual all purpose flour will work too.

And here it is, after 4 tries, my thin crust pizza! 

I used the same tomato paste-based pizza sauce as in my earlier post, topped it with sliced bell peppers, mozzarella, basil leaves, canned mushrooms and sliced salame picante.  I made another pizza with the same toppings except I replaced the salame with slivers of bottled spanish sardine, a more healthy version but nonetheless flavorful.  Can't wait to try that one again.

Pino Resto Bar

When you drove for 2 hours a 25 km stretch, ok I might be exaggerating, it might be 30 km, you just wanna lie in and sleep off the stress the following day.  But the family hasn't been going out lately, so we decided to have a Sunday lunch out.  It was choice between Romulo Cafe somewhere near Timog or Pino Resto Bar in UP Village, both we haven't tried and both within the vicinity.  We chose Pino since it was nearer and it was already 12 by the time we got out. 

Pino is one of the new restos that has opened within the UP Village that I've read a lot of good things about.  But since everyone has his own preferences and food tastes, I'd rather try it then form my own impressions about the resto and food.  

Pino is kinda unique as it has a vegetarian sister resto, Pipino just above it plus the place turns into a cooking school in other days.  Dining at the ground floor, you can enjoy the best of both restos since you can order from both the Pipino and Pino menus but this doesn't apply to Pipino. Since I'm not so ready to go vegetarian (how can I let go of lechon??), it has to be Pino.

The menu was a mix of fusion and traditional.  To get a taste of their starters, we ordered their Pino-ka Platter 1 made up of their Pork and Shrimp Lemongrass, Skewers, Nori Cheese Sticks, Pino Fries, Crispy Calamares, Chicken Lollipop.  Good presentation, loved the pork and shrimp lemongrass.  

I would have preferred to have it as a Vietnamese wrap though, and was looking at the lettuce leaves from our Fried Kesong Puti Salad with Mango Vinaigrette but the leaves were  vinaigrette coated.  Too messy and too sweet to use.  Maybe next time.

Fried Kesong Puti Salad with Mango Vinaigrette

Tatay (my Dad) wanted the Pininyahang baby-back ribs but they were out that day so we decided to just try the Kalderetang Lengua and the Bagnet and Tofu Stack-O with Mushroom Rice.  From Pipino, we tried the Soba noodles with soy mirin sauce and the Vegetable curry with couscous.

Cold Soba Buckwheat Noodles with Mango Salsa, Crispy Tofu and Soy-Mirin

the Bagnet and Tofu Stack-O with Mushroom Rice, my fave

The Lengua was perfectly tenderized but I'm not too sure if I like their Kaldereta sauce but the Bagnet was spot-on.  It was perfectly seasoned and cooked till crisp.  I was honestly thinking why it was paired with tofu (could it be to lessen the guilt??) but presentation-wise, it was perfect.  The Cold Soba Buckwheat Noodles with Mango Salsa, Crispy Tofu and Soy-Mirin was your usual Japanese buckwheat noodle dish with a mango salsa twist. I wasn't too keen on the Vegetable curry with couscous, though.  The curry tasted of Japanese kare which I'm not too fond of. Price wise, it was reasonable.  Just for the Bagnet, I'm definitely coming back:)

Vegetable Curry with couscous

Pino Resto Bar

39 Malingap St., Teachers Village

Quezon City, Metro Manila

Philippines

(02) 441-1773

Burfi, so easy!

I'm a dessert fiend.  Apparently, I'm also a recipe hoarder.  Found so much written or printed ones lying everywhere in my room and the funny thing is, most haven't been tried yet.  So, I made a decision to try a recipe I thought was interesting as soon as I can before its either lost, forgotten or thrown into a drawer.  

Last weekend while watching someone cook Indian cuisine, the girl demonstrated this really easy dessert.  I've bought most of my Indian sweets from my favorite shop, Assad along U.N. Ave. but I've always wanted to make my own so today while in the kitchen trying to do some clean up, I saw my dessicated coconut and cardamon then remembered I also recently bought pistachios, all ready for my burfi.  Since the recipe called for cardamon powder and I only had the whole seeds, I dry roasted some then powderized it using a blender. I was in cardamon heaven.  I also pan roasted the pistacios a bit to give it some crunch and more nutty flavor.

I followed the recipe except for the cardamon which I sparingly used, just a bit less than a half of a teaspoon since it might be too overpowering. Good decision. I mixed everything and cooked it in 8 minutes with continuous stirring, letting it cool a bit before rolling into balls and dredging it in more dessicated coconut.  Easy and so addicting!  Made this in about 20 minutes or less.

Burfi

200 g dessicated coconut + more for dredging
a bit less than 1/2  tsp ground cardamon
380 g of condensed milk
1/3 c roughly chopped, shelled and lightly toasted pistachios



Note: Cardamon comes in both green and black varieties.  I like the green ones since they seem to have a better flavor.  They can be bought in Indian stores.  You can also opt to just leave it out if you can't find them but if you can, please do.  It makes it much more authentic. As for the pistachios, you can replace it with any nut but cashew might give a better flavor.  Lastly, cook it in a thick sauce pan and stir continuously.  The sugar and milk might burn if you heat it without stirring.

Bread-making phobic

I have a confession.  Give me a recipe of any cake to bake and I'll do it without hesitation but a recipe with yeast and flour, is a totally different story.  For some reason, it really brings out a lot of my baking insecurities.  98% of my attempts are total failures and I'm still haunted by them. Haha. The 2% success rate are for my breads which I made using a bread maker and (take note) bread mix and for a pizza crust which was at least edible.  


So with this success rate, I stayed away from baking anything that resembles breads for the longest time and just resigned to the fact that I'm a total bread-making failure and needs to enroll in a bread-making course.  Well, that was until this year. A friend commented that she made this http://www.yummy.ph/recipe/stuffed-brioche and it really looked good.  So armed with a bit of courage, I made half the recipe and took a picture.  What this picture didn't show though, was that it was heavy.  Was a brioche supposed to be this way?? Anyway, some did look good on pics but I think only Pirate, my dog appreciated it. Haha.


After that, it was pizza 2.  Failed. Pizza 3, somewhat better. I'm convinced, I need help.  Looked at several schools but the days didn't fit my sched.  So anyway, finally found a friend who was willing to give some pandesal-making lessons using a recipe she got from a bread baking class which she never tried making by herself after.  So on a Saturday, armed with the recipe and what she remembered from that class, we tried following the recipe and it turned out close to perfect!  Actually, she did most of the work but at least I did some weighing and I did put it inside the oven.  I'm happy.  The jinx has been lifted.  Look at all these beauties!

After a few days, with a bit more confidence but still with some apprehension, I tried making half a recipe again all by myself (well, I did pM my friend over FB while I was doing this).  I added 3 times the sugar since I wanted it sweet. This was actually how it looked like before it went into the oven:

After 2 1/2 hours, with the whole house wafting with fresh bread aromas, finally this was how it looked.  So glad it turned out soft and sweet but I think I need more salt next time to balance the flavors but the texture, oooohhhh so perfect.  Next time though, I'm going to scale it to 30 g of dough.  These ones grew twice its size in the oven and they were huge!  

Pan de sal

Heny Sison with some adjustments

500 g bread flour

20 g active dry yeast

312 g water

100 g brown sugar

6 g salt

50 g margarine

1/4 c cooking oil

bread crumbs for coating

1. Warm some of the water, it should be around 45-50 degrees C.  Add the yeast and some of the sugar (about a teaspoon), stir and let it sit until frothy.

2. Pour the yeast mixture into the mixing bowl then add all the other ingredients except for the cooking oil and bread crumbs.

3. Using the dough hook attachment of your Kitchen Aide, mix the dough at speed 2 until the dough is smooth and elastic.

4. Coat a separate bowl and transfer the kneaded dough.  Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until double in size (about 30 mins)

5. Punch the air out.  Cover it again and let it rise until double in size (another 30 mins). Do not punch out the air.

6. Preheat oven at 350 deg F. Spread some breadcrumbs on the workbench.  Carefully transfer the dough and form a long baton.

7. Using a wooden dough scraper, cut into about 30 g pieces.

8. Transfer to a jelly roll pan or cookie sheet with  a silicone mat and let it rise again until double in size.  Leave about an inch between the dough pieces to give it space to rise.

9. Bake for about 20 mins.  Enjoy!

Operation: Gourmet Streetfood

Haven't been posting but I can assure you the kitchen has been busy.  Aside from cooking for a friend's party,  what's really been keeping me on my toes during off work hours (meaning early mornings and late evenings) is working on a number of new recipes which needed to be taste tested.  Bad idea for someone who's trying to keep her weight off.  Oh well, I'll be back to normal hopefully by next week.  I'm gunning to finish this by Friday to  have the weekends off to visit a food fair, another foodie hobby.

A sneak peek into what I'm working on. Guess which converted Filipino streetfood this is.  Hint: these fried eggs, when sold, are normally bright orange.  For the recipes, you have to wait for it to go on the web :)

First time, Beef Sukiyaki

Someone had a Sukiyaki hangover and it wasn't me.  

After eating Beef Sukiyaki from a neighbor's party the night before, Nanay wanted a recreation of the dish but presented better.  Armed with a googled recipe, I was off searching for the ingredients especially a bunch of enoki mushrooms which I really wanted to be there for an added special touch.

Luckily, the first vegetable vendor I saw had a bunch of them but they really looked wilted from the heat but after doing an exhaustive search for another hour I have to resign myself to this bunch.  Found some fresh tofu too from another stall as well as leeks.  Nanay bought the thinly sliced beef, Chinese cabbage, carrots and shitake mushrooms from another market.  The rest of the ingredients, I had them already at home.

We've never had a table top hot plate at home so I used our 15 yr old Salad Master skillet (I tell you, this skillet is built to last!) to cook this on the table.  I mixed the soup ingredients, washed and prepared all the other ingredients then with a bit of oil, stir fried some of the beef  until browned before adding  broth into the skillet.  To make it look better, I arranged these inside the skillet and waited for it to boil before serving.  Since everything cooked so fast, the shitake were a little bit tough.  Lesson learned: if using reconstituted shitake, boil it first until tender before adding all the other ingredients. 

Beef Sukiyaki (Good for about 8)

2 Tbsp of vegetable oil
250 g of beef sirloin, sliced against the grain as thinly as possible

a handful of reconstituted sliced shitake mushrooms, squeeze out the water
2 stems of leeks
250 g squid balls
1 small carrot
1 large firm tofu, sliced 
3 bunches of enoki mushrooms
about 200 g of green bean thread noodles


Sukiyaki Broth


6 cups of water
2/3 c of sugar
1 c of Kikkoman light soysauce (if using usual soysauce, lessen it)
1/2 c of mirin


1. Mix all the ingredients for the Sukiyaki Broth.  Set aside.


2. Pour the vegetable oil in the skillet. Set it on high.  Add the sirloin and brown both sides.


3 . Add the broth into the skillet. Add the shitake mushrooms and let it boil.


4. Add the rest of the ingredients.  When the green bean thread noodles has turned transparent and soft, turn down the heat and enjoy!