THE DARING BAKERS OCTOBER CHALLENGE: Layering Up: Mille-feuille/Napoleon

Our October 2012 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Suz of Serenely Full. Suz challenged us to not only tackle buttery and flaky puff pastry, but then take it step further and create a sinfully delicious Mille Feuille dessert with it!

I was excited for this month's challenge not only because of the recipe but more so because it was hosted by Suz, one of my favorite bloggers!  I've been reading every single blog post of hers ever since I chanced upon it in one of the challenges here a while back and let me say, she really has a way with words, she has the yummiest recipes and she takes really nice pictures!  So...on to the challenge...what is it exactly? 

‘Mille-feuille’ is French for ‘a thousand leaves’ (or ‘layers’), which is very apt, as it contains both layers of pastry (usually three) and layers within each pastry sheet …in short...puff pastry! (insert shudder here)

To tell you honestly, I was a little bit wary of doing puff pastry again because of the hot and humid weather here in the Philippines.  The few times that I made puff pastry, it was really a race against time and temperature.  Even if the dough was refrigerated as often as possible, the butter tended to seep out after a few rolls and this was no exception...but the recipe Suz gave was awesome, I don't know if the weather cooperated today but there was less oozing of the butter today. Here is a link to the whole recipe that was given to us.

The recipe is very straightforward as is the directions.  I just forgot to take out the baking parchment for the last 5 minutes of baking time for the first puff pastry sheet so it was a bit pale but otherwise everything went well.

 I decided not to experiment and to stick to the recipe that was given to us.  So instead of using my fool-proof recipe for creme patissiere I followed the recipe here and didn't have any problem with the setting of the cream.  I made the puff pastry in the morning and the creme patissiere after lunch.  I refrigerated it for 1 hour and it had thickened enough to set properly.

Thank you Suz for hosting this month's challenge, it was indeed a challenge for me!  The resulting product was delicious and everyone at home oohed and aahed at this pretty and deliciously decadent dessert. 

Dear friends, please don't forget to check out the other Daring Bakers versions of Mille Feuille, you won't be disappointed, I promise!

KULINARYA COOKING CLUB OCTOBER 2012-FILIPINO STYLE SPAGHETTI

I have a confession to make to my Kulinarya friends, this is the first time I made Filipino-style spaghetti in my whole life.  Don't get me wrong, I like it, and there were one or two instances that I drive-thru Jollibee just to get my sweet spaghetti fix.  I remember when I was small, we used to attend children's parties where this dish was never absent.  

So here I am today, making my own version of Filipino-style sweet spaghetti and I was being stubborn at first, because I only bought Del Monte sweet style spaghetti but the taste and color were lacking so I had to give in and fortunately I found a bottle of UFC Tamis Anghang Banana Catsup in the cupboard! And voila, just like that...my spaghetti came out as Pinoy looking and tasting as the ones I remember from my childhood!

 The most important ingredient in Filipino-style Spaghetti...Banana Catsup!

FILIPINO STYLE SPAGHETTI

2 Tablespoons Lauric Oil (Coconut Oil)

2 cloves Garlic, peeled and minced

2 medium Red Onions, peeled and minced

250 grams Mighty Meaty Hotdog, sliced into rings

500 grams Ground Lean Pork

2 pieces Bayleaf (dried and crumbled)

500 grams Del Monte Sweet Blend Catsup

320 grams UFC Banana Catsup

200 grams Button Mushrooms, sliced

salt and pepper to taste

500 grams Royal Spaghetti, cooked

Preheat pot with oil, saute onion until fragrant and translucent, add the garlic and saute until fragrant.  Add the bayleaf and the ground pork.  Cook until pork is no longer pink.  Add the catsup, hotdogs and mushrooms.  Add enough water so that sauce will not be dry.  Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.  

Serve hot over cooked spaghetti noodles and lots of cheese!

Yummy sweet spaghetti

And there you have it...Filipino style sweet spaghetti just like the ones from my childhood!

Kulinarya Cooking Club was started by a group of Filipino foodies living in Sydney who are passionate about the Filipino culture and its colourful cuisine.
Each month we will showcase a new dish along with their family recipes. By sharing these recipes, we hope you find the same passion and love for Filipino food as we do.
If you’re interested in joining our Kulinarya Cooking Club, please feel free to drop by our foodblogs and leave a comment. We would love to hear from you!

THE DARING COOKS’ OCTOBER 2012 CHALLENGE: BRASILIAN FEIJOADA!! (AND MORE…)

Rachel Dana was our October 2012 Daring Cooks' Challenge hostess! Rachel brought Brazil into our lives by challenging us to make Feijoada and Farofa along with some other yummy side dishes traditionally served with Feijoada, which is a delicious black bean and pork stew.

According to Rachel :"Feijoada is a famous Brazilian black bean stew filled with meat, mostly pork parts. A really traditional feijoada will have pig ears, feet, nose…this originated with slaves and what was left for them to cook with. I made a more “modern” feijoada, I guess some would say, with sausage and ribs and ham, but this is how my in-laws make feijoada, and I find it easier, in many ways. If you want to add pig ears and such, please try it out.

Though farofa and vinagrete aren’t necessarily a part of everyone’s feijoada meal, they are definitely a part of mine. I think it will be fun to play with these recipes, I would have loved to do a whole challenge only on farofa and vinagrete, but the main component of the best farofa is mandioca flour, and since this isn’t easy for everyone to buy, I figured it wouldn’t work out too well. Fortunately there is farofa made with corn flour and even ground breadcrumbs, called Farofa da Rosca. So I think everyone can manage one of these three.."

This is the first time that I will be cooking and tasting Feijoada although I have heard of it before so with an adventurous twinkle to my eye...I rolled up my invisible sleeves and set out to conquer this latest Daring Kitchen challenge!

Rachel's recipe called for salted meats, and I didn't have any so I decided to use pork ribs instead.  I also substituted chorizo bilbao for the smoked sausages.  Aside from that I followed the recipe...and here is how my final product looked like.

For the Farofa, which was supposed to be cooked with cornmeal I went ahead and used dry breadcrumbs which our gracious host also said we could use. I really liked the flavor of this one...

I had all the ingredients for the vinagrete and I'd have to say this one was really delicious and a perfect foil for the saltiness of the Feijoada.

I didn't have any collard greens or white rice so I didn't make those two.  But thanks to Rachel, I was able to make a dish that is completely foreign to me and we had this for dinner tonight.  I would definitely make this again!

Please don't forget to visit the other Daring Cooks for their own versions of this month's challenge!

The Daring Cooks' September 2012 Challenge: PAELLA

It's been a while since I last updated my blog because I've been blessed by so much work, but there was no way I'm going to miss this month's Daring Cooks' challenge just because Paella is one of my favorite dishes to cook and eat!
I grew up eating a "Filipinized" version of paella which my grandmother called "Arroz Valenciana" and I'm guessing that's where my love for paella came from. So without further ado...
Our Daring Cooks’ September 2012 hostess was Inma of la Galletika. Inma brought us a taste of Spain and challenged us to make our very own delicious Paella!

Our hostess was gracious enough to allow us to make whatever paella we wanted so I followed her recipe but I omitted the seafood and made it an all meat version. I also used brown rice instead of white rice and the result was just so delicious, it was wiped out!

Ingredients
2¼ pounds (1 kg) jumbo shrimp (prawns), cleaned & deveined.
1 pound fresh clams (any size)
1 pound (½ kg) pork loin, diced
2¼ pounds (1 kg) chicken breast, diced
2¼ pounds (1 kg) long grain rice (par-boiled)
5-6 Saffron threads *
4 garlic cloves
16 oz. crushed tomatoes
9 oz (250 gm) fresh green beans **
1 bell pepper (capsicum) cut into strips
9 oz (250 gm) peas **
Olive Oil
Salt to taste
3 springs of parsley
Water or chicken broth to boil rice in – ratio is 1 cup of rice = 3 cups of liquid
1 can of sweet pepper (pimientos or roasted red peppers, peeled and sliced), a bunch of parsley and lemons cut into quarters (For garnish)

*Note: You can substitute saffron with “paellero carmencita” or another brand of paellero, you can find it in special stores and it costs much less than saffron. If that option is not easy, you can use paprika but in that case the broth must be excellent.
**Note: All vegetables are recommended to be used fresh, although you can use frozen or canned. If using frozen, add to the Paella at the end of cooking, say 10 minutes. If using canned, add at the very end before serving, just long enough to heat through – maybe 5 minutes.

Directions:
1.Mise en place, maybe this is the most important of all the steps, you have to wash and chop all the vegetables and cut all the meat and remove the skin.

2.In the paellera heat the olive oil, add two garlic cloves diced and remove.

3.Add shrimp, sauté and when it turns pink remove it and set apart.

4.Fry the chicken and the pork

5.In another saucepan boil the clams in salted water. Bring water to just over the clams. Once clams have cooked, remove from water and discard any clams that did not open. Strain the clam broth and set aside.

6.Add pepper to the chicken and pork, sauté. Add salt to taste

7. Add crushed tomato

8. Add broth (or water) to cover the chicken and pork, boil for 30 minutes.

9. Add the strained clam broth. Add the fresh green beans too.

10.At the same time you have to make: “la picada”. In a mortar or a home coffee grinder crush 2 garlic cloves, parsley and saffron. Add a little bit of paella´s broth. Pour it into the Paella.

11.Spread the rice through all the paellera.

12. Add water (per cup of rice add 2 cups of water)

13. Add peas

14.The paella must continue boiling until the rice is dry. Add some lemon drops. Add the shrimp.

15.You have to wait until the broth or water is consumed

16.Turn off the heat and cover with some clean cloth towels. Let rest for 15 minutes.

And voila, the Paella is ready

The finished product!

Thank you Inma for this wonderful challenge! It's great to learn another way of cooking my favorite dish.
Please don't forget to visit the other Paellas that my fellow Daring Cooks have come up with!

The Daring Cooks' July 2012 Challenge: Cooking "En Papillote"

Our July 2012 Daring Cooks' host was Sarah from All Our Fingers in the Pie! Sarah challenges us to learn a new cooking technique called "Cooking En Papillote" which is French and translates to cooking in parchment.

According to Sarah "...this cooking method in parchment is also called "al cartoccio" in Italian, it is a method of cooking in which the food is put into a folded pouch or parcel and then baked. The parcel is typically made from folded parchment paper, but other materials such as paper bag or aluminum foil may be used."

Yay, I love challenges where they give us the freedom of choosing what ingredients and materials...and for this French/Italian method of cooking I decided to go all out Asian or more specifically Filipino. Being a tropical country, we have an abundance of bananas and of course banana leaves so we use these leaves (also coconut leaves) for wrapping food and then cooking them either in grills or steamers. For this challenge I chose to make "Pinais na Bangus" which is milkfish stuffed with vegetables and wrapped in banana leaves and then grilled...doesn't that sound delicious?

The basic ingredients are milkfish, cleaned, scaled and butterflied (as shown above) in which I squeezed lemon juice and seasoned with salt and freshly cracked pepper. I cut lemongrass and finely minced ginger root, these went first and then the chopped tomatoes (2 medium sized) and minced white onion (1 piece).
Doesn't that look awesome? The vegetables are so colorful! I closed (as best as I could) the fish and then wrapped the clean banana leaves and put it on a stovetop grill, this is even better on a charcoal grill.

After 15 minutes on one side, turn the fish so that the other side gets cooked too. I added an extra 5 minutes each, so that was a total of 40 minutes cooking time.

And voila! This is so awesome when you open it, because the banana leaves impart flavor and aroma on the freshly cooked fish. We usually eat this dish with a sauce made of patis (fish sauce), calamansi and crushed siling labuyo (bird's eye chili) and hot rice....Yum...excuse me...but it's lunchtime here!
Thank you Sarah for this awesome challenge, it was really fun and delicious! Oh and dear readers please don't forget to check out the other Daring Cooks' versions of this delicious and healthy method of cooking!

THE DARING BAKERS' JUNE 2012 CHALLENGE: Going Batty for the Jubilee

I was thrilled when I found out that we were going to make a Battenberg cake for this month. It looks really pretty, it was one of those cakes that made me think "How did they do that?" when I was not into baking yet. Also it was a very nice gesture because it is the Queen's Diamond Jubilee...not that I am in the UK, far from it...but my parents were in London when it was her Golden Jubilee 10 years ago and it was really bittersweet watching the Diamond Jubilee on TV because my mother passed away last year and it just reminded me so much of her.

Mandy of What the Fruitcake?! came to our rescue last minute to present us with the Battenberg Cake challenge! She highlighted Mary Berry's techniques and recipes to allow us to create this unique little cake with ease.

So what exactly is a Battenberg Cake? Apparently the first Battenberg cake was made to celebrate the marriage of Queen Victoria's granddaughter, Princess Victoria to husband, Prince Louis of Battenberg.

Wow, so how's that for a cake's history? I will never look at another Battenberg cake without thinking of its royal and romantic backstory. We were given freedom by Mandy with flavors and with the covering (marzipan, chocolate plastique etc.) but I decided to follow the traditional recipe which she provided.

BATTENBERG CAKE

3/4 cups unsalted Butter, softened and cut into cubes

3/4 cups Caster Sugar

1 1/4 cups Self Raising Flour*

3 large Eggs, room temperature

1/2 cup ground Almonds (can be substituted with ground rice)

3/4 teaspoon Baking Powder

1/2 teaspoon Vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon Almond extract

Red food coloring (paste, liquid or gel)

To finish:

1/3 cup Apricot jam

1 cup (225) grams Marzipan, natural or yellow

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees farenheit.

2. Grease an 8 inch/20 cm square baking pan with butter

3. Line the pan with parchment paper creating a divide in the middle with parchment paper or foil

4. Whisk together the dry ingredients then combine with the wet ingredients in a large bowl and beat together just until the ingredients are combined and the batter is smooth.

5. Spoon half of the mixture to one side of the prepared pan

6. Add a few drops of the food coloring to the remaining batter, stir until the color is thoroughly distributed, add more color if needed.

7. Spoon the pink batter into the other half of the prepared pan

8. Smooth the surface of the batter with a spatula making sure batter is in each corner of the pan

9. Bake for 25-30 minutes until the cake is well risen, springs back when lightly touched and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean (it should shrink away from the sides of the pan)

10. Leave to cool in the pan for a few minutes before turning out to cool thoroughly on a wire rack.

11. Once completely cool, trim the edges of the cake with a serrated knife.

12. Cut each colored sponge in half lengthwise so that you are left with four long strips of sponge.

13. Neaten the strips and trim as necessary so that your checkered pattern is neat and even as possible

14. Gently heat the apricot jam and pass through a sieve.

15. Brush warmed jam onto strips of cake to stick the cake together in a checkered pattern (one yellow next to one pink. On top of the one pink next to one yellow)

16. Dust a large flat surface with powdered sugar and roll out the marzipan (or in my case, the chocolate plastique), roll into an oblong shape that is wide enough to cover the length of the cake and completely wrap the cake.

17. Brush the top of the cake with apricot jam.

18. Place the cake on the marzipan/chocolate plastique jam side down.

19. Brush the remaining three sides with jam.

20. Press marzipan/chocolate plastique around the cake making sure the join is either neatly in one corner or will be underneath the cake once turned over.

*To make 1 cup of self raising flour=1 cup All purpose flour + 1 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder +1/4 teaspoon Salt

CHOCOLATE PLASTIQUE
200 grams good quality Dark Chocolate(70% cocoa content)

1/4 cup/60 ml Light Corn Syrup/Glucose Syrup/Golden Syrup

Directions

1. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or a heat-proof bowl over a pot of simmering water, stir occasionally.

2. Once completely melted, remove from the heat and cool a bit

3. Stir in corn syrup/glucose syrup/golden syrup it will seize up almost immediately, just keep stirring until mixed and it comes away from the sides of the bowl

4. Transfer chocolate into a sealable bag, spread the chocolate out then seal the bag

5. Leave overnight or refrigerate for about 2 hours until completely firm

6. Turn out from the bag and knead on a surface dusted with powdered sugar, at first it will just break, but as you knead it will warm up and become pliable

7. Knead until it's pliable enough to roll out or mould about 5-10 minutes.

And there you have it...so nice and pretty to look at but actually was quite easy to do. Thank you Mandy for this challenge, it's one of my favorites now! Do check out the other Daring Bakers' awesome Battenberg cakes, you won't be disappointed!

Homemade Marshmallows

I've always been fascinated with marshmallows even when I was a kid...those unbelievably soft, mushy and oh so delicious cubes or balls of sugary goodness. Fast forward to a few months ago when I happened to watch Alton Brown making them on TV, I was suddenly eight years old again craving for them so when I found his recipe, I got the brilliant idea to make them at home.
HOMEMADE MARSHMALLOWS by Alton Brown
3 packages unflavored gelatine
1 cup ice-cold water, divided
12 ounces granulated sugar, approximately 1 1/2 cups
1 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
Non stick spray

DIRECTIONS:

Place the gelatin into the bowl of a stand mixer with 1/2 cup water. Have the whisk attachment standing by.
In a small saucepan combine the remaining 1/2 cup water, granulated sugar, corn syrup and salt. Place over medium high heat, cover and allow to cook for 3-4 minutes. Uncover, clip a candy thermometer onto the side of the pan and continue to cook until the mixture reaches 240 degrees F, approximately 7 to 8 minutes. Once the mixture reaches this temperature, immediately remove from heat.
Turn the mixer on low speed, and while running slowly pour the sugar syrup down the side of the bowl into the gelatin mixture. Once you have added all the syrup, increase the speed to high. Continue to whip until the mixture becomes very thick and is lukewarm, approximately 12 to 15 minutes. Add the vanilla during the last minute of whipping. While the mixture is whipping prepare the pans as follows:
Combine confectioners' sugar and cornstarch in a small bowl. Lightly spray a 13 x 9 inch metal baking pan with non-stick cooking spray. Add the sugar and cornstarch mixture and move around to completely coat the bottom and sides of the pan. Return the remaining mixture to the bowl for later use.
When ready, pour the mixture into the prepared pan, using a lightly oiled spatula for spreading evenly into the pan. Dust the top with enough of the remaining sugar and cornstarch mixture to lightly cover. Reserve the rest for later. Allow the marshmallows to sit uncovered for up to 4 hours or overnight.
Turn the marshmallows out onto a cutting board and cut into 1-inch using a pizza wheel dusted with the confectioners' sugar mixture. Once cut, lightly dust all sides of each marshmallow with the remaining mixture, using additional if necessary. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks.

*I didn't use non-stick cooking spray on the pan, instead I lined the bottom and sides with parchment paper and coated it with the confectioners' sugar and cornstarch mixture. I just used an ordinary sharp knife for cutting instead of a pizza wheel and the results were alright.

So there you have it...so easy and it was tastier than any store-bought marshmallows I've ever tasted. Plus imagine all the flavor variations possible!