Chopsuey

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I am supposed to make seafood Chopsuey for dinner the other night but I don’t have all the necessary ingredients. I was too lazy to drive down to the store so I decided to use what I have available in the fridge and this is what I came up with. It’s not what I want it to be but it was delicious.

I didn’t do anything special for this recipe. I just sauté all the vegetable until tender , added the cooked shrimps and add some salt and pepper to taste.Bwallaa...instant dinner!

Yello Rice

If you like your rice yellow then this is for you. This recipe is very easy that you can even close your eyes while making it. It’s another way to make use of your left-over rice. I am not going to make this entry any longer so here is the recipe.

Yellow Rice

Ingredients

1 clove chopped garlic
1 small chopped onion
1 tbsp. olive oil
2 cups rice
½ tsp. turmeric powder (you can add more if you like)
Pepper and salt to taste
Rosemary, carrot bits and soy sauce for garnish


Preparation

1. In a medium pan with olive oil, Sautee garlic until slightly brown.

2. Add chopped onion and sauté until tender.
3. Add rice, stir until combined. If it’s too dry, you can add a little water or some broth.
4. Add turmeric. Stir
5. Add pepper and salt to taste. Enjoy!

Palitaw

Palitaw is supposed to be flat but I made mind round. I don’t know how to call this one, I guess still palitaw because I used the same ingredients and prepared it in the same way. This Filipino snack is one of my favorites,it reminds me of my childhood. Hubby and my eldest son are not too crazy about this snack for some reasons. I’m glad my youngest son found it interesting and yummy.

Palitaw

Ingredients:

1 cup sweet rice flour (I preferred Mochiko)
½ cup or less water
½ coconut flakes
½ cup white sugar
1/8 cup sesame seeds


Preparation

1. Boil water in a medium pot.
2. Make dough by mixing flour and water (spoon water slowly- it the easiest way to create a smooth dough. Try not to make a mushy, sticky or too dry dough).
3. Make the balls (1 inch in diameter).
4. Drop balls one by one into the boiling water (try to leave enough space for each ball so it don’t stick together).
5. The Palitaw is cook once they come up or float to the surface.
6. Scoop them out.
7. Roll each ball into the coconut flakes.
8. Skew them if you wish (like mine).
8. Sprinkle with sugar and sesame seeds before eating.

Enjoy!

Lumpia Shanghai

Lumpia Shanghai is one of my favorite finger goodies. I like to make the shanghai type all because it’s very easy to prepare. You will probably find all kind of recipes online but I have my own recipe, the one that is not too complicated to understand. A recipe that I grew up with…easy and simply yummy with plain soy sauce or sweet and sour sauce.

Lumpia Shanghai

Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef (lean meat the better)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 medium carrot, grated
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 egg beaten
2 Tbsp. Soy sauce
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. ground pepper
1 package Spring roll wrappers (25 pcs.)
Oil for frying


Preparation:

1. In a large bowl, combine ground beef, onion, carrot, celery, garlic, egg, soy sauce, salt, and pepper thoroughly.
2. Lay out a lumpia wrapper one at a time in a flat surface, and place a tablespoon of the filling in a line down of the wrapper.
3. Take the bottom and top edges of the wrapper and fold then towards the center.
4. Take the left and right sides, and fold them towards the center.
5. Moisten the last edges of the wrapper with water to seal.
6. Repeat procedure using the rest of the wrappers.
7. In a deep pan or fryer, heat oil to 375 degrees F.
8. Fry lumpia’s (5 to 6 pieces at a time).
9. Fry until golden brown (3-4 minutes), turning once.
10. Drain and Enjoy with your favorite sauce.

HOPIA

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Not a very good pictures but it will guide you in preparing your first hopia baking.

HOPIA LOVE ME TOO

I made my first hopia three weeks ago. Hopia is always been one of my favorite snacks in the Philippines. It’s pretty hard to find a decent hopia around here. I watched people made them before and I found the preparation a daunty task. I did a little researched on how to make hopia and so far the recipe below is the easiest and fastest one. I adapted two recipes from Manang and starbulletin.

Also, I used lard instead of vegetable oil that most people do for so many reasons. I like how the lard works in my dough. Based on my experience, it makes the crust flakier and tastier. You can buy lard almost anywhere in the grocery stores or you can make your own if you have all the time. I love the onion filling of the hopia but unfortunately I didn’t find any recipe for it. I used mongo paste and ube halaya that I have prepared previously for my fillings. This hopia is delicious and a very easy to make, so if you’re ready to savor another childhood favorite’s then get ready and grab the lard, flour, and everything that you needed.

HOPIA

Ingredients:

1 egg beaten for brushing later

Dough 1:

1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup lard

Use your hands. Mix together until crumbly. Set aside.



Dough 2:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. white sugar
½ cup lard
½ cup water

1. Mix flour, sugar, and lard together until crumbly.
2. Add water slowly and form soft dough (soft but not sticky).
3. With a rolling pin. Flatten the dough onto the floured surface (1/8 inch).
4. Get the Dough 1 and distribute on top of the flatten dough 2 evenly.
5. Gently roll the two dough’s together.
6. Wrap tightly with cellophane wrap.
7. Chill for at least 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes:
Pre-heat Oven to 375 degrees F.

8. Take the dough out and cut into pieces. 1- 1 ½ inches.
9. Make sure you’re filling’s are ready. I am not going to show you how to make filling’s yet. But you can use mungbean paste, red bean paste, ube halaya or anything that you can imagine.
10. Roll each piece into circle or you can shape it in anyway you want (I used rolling pin).
11. Place a heaping tablespoon of filling in the center.
12. Gather edges of dough over filling and pinch together in the center.
13. Place pinched side down. Pat into a circle and flatten slightly.
14. Repeat procedure for all pieces.
15. Place hopia on an ungreased baking pan.
16. Bake for about 15 minutes or until the bottom are brown. (NOTE: the tops of hopia will still be pale or white).
17. Remove from oven. Brush each hopia with beaten egg.
18. Set oven to broil.
19. Bake hopia for about 1-2 minutes or until hopia tops are nicely brown. (NOTE: DO NOT WONDER AROUND WHEN BROLING YOUR HOPIA to prevent burning).


ENJOY!

WHEAT PANDESAL

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Pan de sal? I surfed the net of its meaning and this what wikipedia said: Pandesal (Spanish: pan de sal, literally "salt bread") is a rounded bread usually eaten by Filipinos during breakfast.[1]. It is bread made of flour, eggs, lard, yeast, sugar, and salt. It has a soft, powdery texture and is eaten in a number of ways combined with numerous sandwich spreads. It is also used for dipping into tsokolate (chocolate), a chocolate drink very much like hot chocolate but with pure cocoa as its main ingredient. Despite the literal meaning of its name, the taste of pandesal varies from bland to slightly sweet. It usually costs one Peso (about 4 cents U.S.), with larger varieties costing 2 Pesos.

The last time I had Pandesal was three years ago when I visited the Philippines. This bread is always one of my favorite breads. It is the most popular bread in the Philippines. I grew up in a place that surrounded by bakeries so I never learn how to make it. Pandesal that just came out from the oven is always the best. I like it with butter, margarine, corn beef or just plain.

Oh! I made my very first pan de sal using bread machine for the dough. I just love my BM to the mixing, kneading and rising. It’s a lot faster, less messy and convenient for me. I have all kind of pandesal recipes but because I don’t have most of the needed ingredients, I did the tweaking once again and came out with this recipe.


WHEAT PANDESAL


Ingredients:

2/3 cup milk
2 large eggs
2 Tbsp butter, cubed
1 tsp salt
1 cup bread flour
2 cups wheat flour
1 Tbsp sugar
Italian bread crumbs - for coating
1 packet active dry yeast
PROOF YEAST- in a bowl, add 1 teaspoon sugar to ¼ cup warm water (100° to 110°F). Sprinkle yeast; let stand for 10 minutes until it foams.

Preparation

1. Add ingredients to bread machine pan following the manufacturer suggestion.
2. Set the bread machine to dough cycle and press start.
3. Wait for the dough cycle to complete. It took me at least 1 hour to 30 minutes.
4. When the dough is ready. Unplug your BM and take the pan out.
5. Grease your hand with cooking oil.
6. Punch the dough down until it deflates.
7. Lay the dough on the prepared greased surface and stretch to make a log.
8. Squeeze the dough gently to release some trapped air.
9. Cut the log into two and sprinkle it with bread crumbs. I used Italian bread crumbs.
10. Using a dough cutter, cut logs into pieces (1 to 1-½ inches).
11. Roll each piece to bread crumbs to coat all sides.
12. Place pieces on greased (I used olive cooking spray) baking pan, with the cut side up 1 inch apart.
13. Cover with clean damp cloth and put it inside the oven with the light on. Let it rise for about 30 minutes.
14. Take it out.
15. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
16. Bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown.
17. Let Cool and enjoy with your favorite fillings.

I made 18 pieces of Pandesal. It was crunchy in the outside and soft in the inside. .At first, I never thought its going to work out because I was not using BM yeast and all bread flour but hey! It turns out really good, more than I expected. The recipe was very easy and fast. Just follow the steps and you will have a delicious and healthy pandesal in no time.

Shakoy

Shakoy anyone? I have been craving for these street goodies for a long time now but just too lazy to make one. Shakoy or butsi or whatever names you call them is one of my favorite snacks back in the Philippines. It’s cheap and available anytime kahit hating gabi. I remember when I was little (little pa rin naman ako), iyong isang kapit bahay namin, araw-araw naglalako ng butsi o shakoy every afternoon. I just loved her shakoy because she put a lot of sweetened coconut filling inside. I think shakoy was like 50 cent (PHP) each that time. I love shakoy and I could probably eat them everyday.

I have researched and asked the recipe of this heaven goodness but unfortunately I can‘t find any decent one. Just make sure to consume your shakoy at once because it will get harder on the following day for some reasons.


SHAKOY or Butsi

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour
1 Tbsp rapid rise yeast
½ tsp salt
Water enough to make soft dough
1 cup oil
½ cup white sugar


Preparation

1. In a bowl, mix flour, salt and yeast.
2. Add enough water and mix thoroughly to form soft dough.
3. Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead. You need dough smooth and not sticky.
4. Place dough into bowl, cover with damp cloth. I place my dough in the oven with light on.
5. Let it rise for 1 hour or until the size is doubled.
6. Punch down dough, knead on a floured surface and form into a log.
7. Cut into pieces, 1-1/2 inches long.
8. Roll each piece into a long stick as thick as your finger.
9. Twist.
10. Place it on the baking sheet, cover with damp cloth, and let it rise for another hour.

After an Hour:

1. Heat oil in a deep pan. I used wok! If you have a fryer the better.
2. Drop shakoy one at a time.
3. Cook each side until brown.
4. Drain, and sprinkle with sugar.