Oh my SIOMAI!

Siomai (Cebuano/Tagalog: siyomay) in the Philippines is often ground pork, beef, shrimp, among others, combined with extenders like green peas, carrots and the like which is then wrapped in wonton wrappers. It is either steamed or fried resulting in a crispy exterior. It is normally dipped in soy sauce and squeezed calamondin, and for some, with an oily, spicy garlic mix.

It's one of my mom's specialty..... try it!

SIOMAI

1 cup shrimps, chopped
1/4 cup ground pork
1 cup singkamas, chopped
1/4 cup spring onions, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 egg
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon Aji-no-moto
1 teaspoon salt

Siomai wrapper
salad or cooking oil
calamansi or lemon juice and soy sauce

Combine first 10 ingredients in a mixing bowl.  Wrap about 1 tablespoon of mixture in a siomai wrapper.  Shape each in a bonnet-like poach.  Brush with salad oil.  Arrange in a steamer and steam for 30 minutes.  Serve with soy sauce and calamansi or lemon juice.

Suwam na Mais

"Suwan na Mais" is one of my brother's favorite dish. My mom usually prepare this dish on weekends. This is her own version of one of the Filipino's favorite food.

Ingredients:

oil
1 ginger, chopped
1 medium sized onion, chopped
2-3 pieces corn, removed from the cob
1 piece carrot, sliced
1 piece patola, sliced
1 small squash or kalabasa, sliced
boiled pork, sliced
1 can corn kernels
salt and pepper to taste
sili leaves or alugbati (spinach vine)
bagoong (fish sauce)

Heat the oil in a sauce pan the saute the ginger, onion, bagoong and pork.  Add the pork stock. Let it boil for a few minutes. Add the fresh corn, corn kernels in can, carrot, kalabasa, and alugbati leaves. Let it simmer. Then add the patola. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot.

Banana Turon

Turon or deep-fried banana rolls is a typical Filipino merienda and dessert. This can usually be seen on the streets being peddled along with banana-que.

This delicious and healthy dessert is an all time Filipino favorite.  Have I mentioned that Turon is so affordable and also easy-to-prepare.

BANANA TURON

Ingredients:
6 pcs Cavendish banana (saba), cut in half (lenghtwise)
1 cup ripe Jackfruit
1 ½ cup brown sugar
12 pcs spring roll wrapper
2 cups cooking oil




Watch the cooking video:

Suman sa Ibus

(Photo by: Elmer Nocheseda)

Suman sa Ibus is a rice cake originating from the Philippines.  It is  made from glutinous rice cooked in coconut milk and often steamed in banana leaves.  It is served wrapped in buli or buri palm leaves and usually eaten sprinkled with sugar. 

Ingredients:

3 cups Sticky Rice (Glutinous Rice)

2 cups coconut milk

1 tbsp. salt

young Coconut Leaves (Wrapping)


Procedure:



1.  Wash rice and place it is a bowl and soak the rice in coconut milk and salt. Leave it for 2o minutes or until the rice absorb the coconut milk.

2.  Wrap the mixture (do not fill then up completely)

3.  Place the Suman in a large bowl. Fill them with water until the Suman is completely immersed.
4.  Boil it for 25 minutes until the Suman is cooked.

5.  Serve it with sugar and mango.



Wrapping Option: You can use banana leaves but you need to cook the rice first (3 cups of rice to 3 cups of water combined with coconut milk) wrap it using banana leaves and steam for a while. The leaves will give a natural aroma to the rice. Desperately enough, you can use aluminum foil instead.

The Health Benefits of Pineapple

The Health Benefits of Pineapple seem endless. You might know pineapple as a canned fruit that come in various slices. In reality, pineapple is a fruit composed of many flowers. The fruits of each flower circle around a single core; each fruit is characterized by a spiny part which we sometimes call as eyes.

Children from tropical countries know what a pineapple looks like. This is because the fruit grow best in humid climate and is readily available almost whole year round. For others, pineapple is just a simple canned fruit – or better yet a fruit shaped like Sponge Bob’s house.

One known Health Benefit of Pineapple is its ability to prevent scurvy. This fruit is rich in Vitamin C, but there is more to it than that.

Pineapples contain an important enzyme called bromelain. This enzyme has been found to be an effective anti-inflammatory compound that helps reduce swelling. It is also known to treat sore throat, arthritis, gout, and acute sinusitis.

Another Health Benefit of Pineapple is its ability to assist in digestion. It is more advisable to have pineapple in between meals to enable proper digestion that can lead to weight loss. If pineapple is eaten with any other food, it will first digest the food that was eaten with it, leaving a little effect on the other foods and proteins stored in the stomach.

Eliminating free radicals from our body is important. Pineapple, like berries is also high in anti-oxidants. This is responsible in protecting our cells from free-radical build-up that can lead to asthma, colon cancer, and rheumatoid arthritis.

Other Health Benefits of Pineapple include: Goiter prevention by regulating the thyroid gland; protects against bronchitis by removing the inflammation of the bronchial tubes; prevents high blood pressure; removes worms from the intestine; prevents dyspepsia from occurring.

Disease-Fighters From Fruits

 

Science has recently uncovered amazing cancer-fighting substances in fruits.  These unique micro-substances are called phytochemicals, and were found to prevent diseases like colds, flu, and even cancer formation.  Others can also help shrink tumors and malignancies.

 

Phytochemicals come in different forms, and can only be found in natural fruits and vegetables.  Pineappled, for example, are rich in P-Coumaric and Chlorogenic Acid.  And this is how these particular phytochemicals work:

 

* During digestion, our body naturally produces "amines" and "nitric acid".  When these two unite, they form "nitrosamines", which may cause cancer.

 

* When we eat pineapples or drink 100% pineapple juice, we not only take in all their vitamins and minerals but also their naturally-occuring phytochemicals.

 

* These phytochemicals act like magnets that whisk away the "nitric acids" to prevent the harmful union with the "amines". This helps stop cancer before it even begins!

 

 

Courtesy of Panlasang Pinoy and Delmonte

Fish Balls

We do sometimes cook fishballs at home for a snack.  FISHBALL is commonly eaten here in the Philippines and are sold by street vendors pushing wooden food carts.  The balls are served skewered  and offered with a choice of three kinds of dipping sauces: SPICY - vinegar, water, diced onions and garlic ;  SWEET- corn starch, banana ketchup, sugar, salt ; and SWEET AND SOUR- the sweet variety with lots of small hot chilis added. But there are also new "ball" varities like chicken, squid (cuttlefish), and kikiam.

You can buy fishballs in the supermarket and cook it at home.  And just make your own sauce. I prefer sweet and sour sauce.

Melt-in-the-mouth Chocolate Cake

Decadent.... addicting.. chocoholic's dream... only a few words that can describe this moist chocolate cake.  It is very much in demand during birthday parties and other special occasions!

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, unsifted
3 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups cocoa powder, unsifted
2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
3 pieces eggs
1 1/2 cup evaporated milk
3/4 cup corn or soya oil
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 1/2 cup boiling water

1.  Grease a 13x9x2 1/4 inch baking pan

2.  Combine all ingredients together except for boiling water.

3.  Beat at medium speed, about 3 minutes, then at high speed for 2 minutes.

4.  Add boiling water.  Blend well. (Resulting mixture has thin consistency).  Pour onto prepared pan.  Bake at preheated 350F oven  for 45 minutes.  Remove pan from oven and cool before inverting pan onto cake

rack.  Cool cake completely.

CHOCOLATE ICING:

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup unsifted cocoa powder

2  300ml cans condensed milk

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1.  In double boiler, over boiling water, melt butter and cocoa powder together.  Stir smooth ans free from lumps.

2.  Add slowly.  Using wire whisk, stir mixture continuously until thick and of spreading consistency.

3.  Cool icing before spreading on cake.

Guinataang Bilo Bilo ( Rice Balls with Coconut Milk )

Ginataan, alternatively spelled guinataan, is a Filipino term which refers to food cooked with "gata" - the Filipino word for coconut milk. Literally translated , ginataan means "done with coconut milk".  Due to general nature of the term, it can refer to a number of different dishes, each called ginataan, but distinct from one another. If gummy balls made of pounded  glutinous rice are added, it becomes a dish called bilo-bilo.

1 cup malagkit ( glutinous rice flour )

1 cup sugar

3 cups coconut milk. diluted with 1/2 cup water

1 cup sugar

2 cups large pearl tapioca (sago)

1 1/2 cups coconut cream

langka (jackfruit), cut in strips (optional)

1.  Blend flour and water and blend them into dough.  Shape into balls measuring 1/4 diameter. 

2.  In a large pot, bring coconut milk, sugar, and tapioca to a boil.  When tapioca turns transparent in color, add the rice balls.

3.  Add remaining pure coconut milk when the rice balls are soft and firm.  Boil for 5 more minutes.

4.  Serve hot.

Won Ton Cheese Sticks

It's perfect for snack! :)

1 package won ton wrappers (100 pieces)

1 large bar Cheddar cheese (500 grams)

1/4 cup water

1 teaspoon cornstarch, plus additional for dusting

1/2 cup cooking oil

Sugar for dusting (optional )

1.  Put won ton wrappers on a clean plate or cutting board.  Slice cheese lengthwise into sticks and set aside on a clean plate.

2.  Pour water into a small bowl and add the cornstarch.  Mix water and cornstarch until smooth.

3.  Put a cheese stick diagonally on the center of two (stuck together) won ton wrappers.  Fold the opposite ends of the wrappers onto the cheese.  Fold pointed end of wrappers over then under the cheese.  Roll wrappers just until the tip.

4.  Mix together water and cornstarch.  Dip a tablespoon lightly into the water/cornstarch mixture and use this to moisten the tip of the wrapper.  This acts as a "paste" to seal the wrappers.  Fold the wrapper completely and press to seal tightly. 

     Repeat with remaining wrappers and cheese sticks.

5.  Put all the wrapped cheese sticks into a large tray or plate and wipe surfaces with clean paper towel.  Or dust lightly with cornstarch.

     Put frying pan on stove and turn on the burner.  Let heat one minute then pour in cooking oil.  Let cooking oil heat about one minute.  Put 4 to 5 pieces cheese sticks into the hot oil.  Let cook until bottom side turns brown.

     Turn cheese sticks over to brown other side evenly.

     Remove cheese sticks from pan and drain on paper towels.  Repeat with remaining cheese sticks.

     If desired, dust with sugar before serving.

Courtesy: Food Magazine

New Year's Eve Celebration

I celebrated New Year's Eve with my family at home. Firecrackers are not allowed here in Davao City so we just made noises through playing music so loud or using torotot ( horn ).  Here are some photos of the food we prepared during the New year's eve! ( All Rights Reserved )

1.  Assorted candies and chocolates

2.  Ginataang Bilo Bilo

3.  Oatmeal cookies and Brownies

4.  Embutido

5.  12 kinds of fruits

6.  Gelatin with milk

7.  Excellente Ham

8.  Ginataang hipon

9.  Matambaka

10.  Pansit Sotanghon

11.  Puto and Banana Cupcake

Let's eat! Happy New Year!