Ube Cake with Mango Cream Cheese Frosting

May 1, 2015January 8, 2019 amcarmen2 Comments

Hello Everyone! As I already mentioned in yesterday’s post, I have a very special recipe for all of you today as today is my Mother’s 55th Birthday! Not only that, it is also my Cousin’s 35th Birthday! A very Happy Birthday to the both of them! Not only do they share the same birthday, but they also share the same-ish name. My mom’s name is Josephine, while my cousin’s name is Joseph; and my mother is also his godmother in both his baptismal and wedding. So yes, these two people are very important to me.

Happy Birthday to my mom Josephine & my cousin Joseph Russell! This is the latest photo that I could find of the two of them. This photograph dates back to December 2012 when my cousin JR got married. Kuya J, payat mo oh! Anyare? Hehehe.

To be completely honest, this cake has given me a lot of headaches to the point where I just had to redo everything again. The plan was to bake it the day before so that it would be in the fridge overnight; that obviously didn’t happened. Something went wrong in the batter; it was very pale and it looked like the batter and the eggs whites separated because when I took them out of the oven, the top half was very airy white the bottom half was cake-y. Since I had quite a tiring day yesterday, I gave up on baking the cake and decided to bake it early the next morning (today). The cake this time went well, I just mixed the batter very well and added some food colouring to bring out the purple a bit more.

However, today my frosting decided that it wanted to wreck havoc. The frosting was actually an experiment, because I wanted to incorporate mango into the cream cheese frosting somehow. The big mistake that I did was that I mixed the mango purée together with the cream cheese and and butter instead of smoothening out the cream cheese and butter first. I ended up with a mess of what looked like really bad scrambled eggs. I tried so hard to save it, but in the end I started all over again. At one point I kind of just had about enough with this cake… But I told myself to carry on because it’s a special cake for my Mom’s Birthday! The flavours were all there, form the cake in the beginning, and even the frosting, but it would’ve ended up looking like a shit cake if I hadn’t redone the whole thing.

Anyway, all mishaps aside, the cake turned out to be pretty good! But what decided to ruin everything yet once again was the weather. It was pitch black and raining when I was about to do the final touches on the cake and I have no natural light to photograph my cake. I am so devastated. It was as if everything was trying to ruin this cake for me… Thank goodness that it was still a little bit bright outside, but I really had to put my ISO up and decrease my shutter speed to get some light!

PREP TIME 30 MINS | COOKING TIME 30-35 MINS | SERVES 8-10

INGREDIENTS

For the cake batter

2 & 1/2 cups cake flour*
1 cup ube (purple yam), cooked and finely grated**
1 cup white sugar
7 egg yolks, lightly beaten
7 egg whites
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup corn syrup***
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
Blue & red food colouring (optional)

For the frosting

1 very ripe mangoes, puréed
1 package (250g) cream cheese, softened
100g unsalted butter, softened
1 cup confectioners’ sugar

*I barely use cake flour, and if you so happen as to not have cake flour in your pantry, you can substitute 1 cup of cake flour with 2 tablespoons of corn flour place into a measuring cup and then filling it with plain flour all the way to the 1 cup mark.

**Place the ube (leaving its skin on) in a pot of boiling water and boil for about 45 minutes to an hour, depending on how big it is, or until tender. Peel off its skin and then grate.

***If you’re like me and you don’t have corn syrup sitting in your pantry because you barely use it anyway, you can substitute corn syrup by dissolving 3/4 cup of granulated sugar in 1/4 cup of boiling water.

METHOD

Preheat oven to 165C (325F or gas mark 3). Grease three 8.5-inch cake pans with a little butter and set aside.
Ube Cake: In a medium-sized bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
Place the grated ube into a large bowl and mix together with the milk and vanilla extract; gradually mix into the ube until it is smooth. Then add in the corn syrup, egg yolks, and oil. Mix together and then add in the flour mixture and mix until smooth. Set aside.
In another large bowl, beat the egg whites until foamy. Gradually add in the sugar, then red and blue food colouring (optional), while continuing to beat until stiff peaks form.
Fold in a third of the egg white mixture into the batter, then quickly fold in remaining whites until no streaks remain. Pour batter into prepared pans.
Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near the centre comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing the cakes from the pans to wire racks to cool down completely.
Mango Cream Cheese Frosting: Using an electric handheld mixer, beat the cream cheese, butter, and maple syrup in a small bowl until smooth. Then beat in the confectioners’ sugar, and then fold in the mango purée.
Assembly: Place one cake layer on a serving plate and trim the tops so that they are level. spread with about 1/4 cup of frosting. Top with the second layer of cake and spread another 1/4 cup of and frosting. Finally, top with the last layer of cake and frost the top and sides of the cake. Decorate with the cake trimmings and store in the fridge before serving. Enjoy!

BON APPÉTIT

– Ally xx

Mango Shake

April 30, 2015January 8, 2019 amcarmen2 Comments

Hello Everyone! I’ll be keeping today’s post very simple and straight forward as tomorrow I will be doing a special post for two very loved people in my life. What I like about being back in the tropics around this time of the year is that it’s summer and summertime means MANGOES! Once, someone asked me a question: “If you were to be shipped to a deserted island and you could only take 1 item of food with you, what would you bring?” I thought a while about this and I remembered that my final answer was mangoes. The moment I said it, everyone nodded and agreed that it was a good choice; I could tell that their mouths watered as soon as I said it.

I love mangoes, especially Philippine mangoes. I’m sorry but Kensington Pride mangoes, which are the ones I’ve been buying from Coles during summertime down under, cannot compare. Today’s recipe is very simple, and is definitely much better than what you get at restaurants. I remember the one that I had at Arabela, it was very watered down, and more on ice than mango.

PREP TIME 10 MINS | COOKING TIME — | SERVES 4

INGREDIENTS

4 ripe Philippine mangoes, peeled and cut into chunks
2 cups ice
1/4 cup cold water
Mint leaves, to garnish

METHOD

Combine all the ingredients, except the mint leaves, into a blender.
Blend until smooth. Pour into a tall glass and garnish with mint leaves.
Serve and enjoy a refreshing drink in the summer sun!

BON APPÉTIT

– Ally xx

Fresh Fruit Salad

April 28, 2015January 8, 2019 amcarmen2 Comments

Hello Everyone! Today’s post is a special one as this is my 100th recipe on the blog! I wanted to make something special, for my 100th recipe post, but I wasn’t in the mood to bake a cake for it because I baked one just last week, and I will be baking one this coming Thursday ready for my Mom’s birthday on Friday!

Anyway, today’s recipe is a classic dish that you will find on every Filipino’s table during Noche Buena (the eve of Christmas) and/or Media Noche (New Year’s eve) feasting celebrations. ‘Fruit Salad’ is a general term referring to a dish that is typically composed of an assortment of fruits, fresh or canned. The Filipino version of the fruit salad consists of these fruits, condensed milk, and table cream, making the dish a rich and sweet dessert. I personally don’t like the use of canned fruits just because of the amount of preservatives in them. Anyway, there are plenty of fresh fruits that can be bought at the local markets – and Philippine mangoes are in season right now so why substitute that for canned fruit cocktail?! However, buying a can of fruit cocktail is definitely cheaper for the average Filipino.

Here’s what you’d get if you use canned fruit cocktail to make your fruit salad; not as vibrant as the one above right? Also, by using fresh fruits, you get to play around not only with the type of fruit but with the many colours as well, for example vibrant green kiwis or bright orange mandarins/papayas? Take your pick! Just don’t forget to include bright yellow mangoes and definitely those luscious red dragonfruits.

Now, I’ve had a look at a few recipes online and none that I have come across add cheese in their fruit salads. From what I know, or I guess what my mom has told me is that, since this would normally be a dish served during Christmas and New Year’s time, a fruit salad would not be complete without the addition of pieces of queso de bola. Queso de Bola (translated: “ball of cheese”) is just Edam cheese, traditionally sold in spheres with a pale yellow interior and a coat of red paraffin wax.

Other than fruits, fresh or canned, and cheese, palm seeds and nata de coco can also be added. I love nata de coco; I’d always fish these out from the serving bowl! Nata de Coco, for those of you who don’t know, is produced by the fermentation of coconut water. It is translucent and has a jelly-like and chewy texture.

PREP TIME 25 MINS | COOKING TIME — | SERVES 8-10

INGREDIENTS

3 young coconuts, flesh removed and shredded*
1 can (380ml) Nestlé cream
1 can (570g) palm seeds, with syrup
1 jar (340g) nata de coco, drained
1 red dragonfruit, cut into chunks
1 green apple, cut into chunks
1 red apple, cut into chunks
1 ripe Philippine mango, cut into chunks**
1/2 block (125g) cheddar cheese, diced
1/2 pineapple, cut into chunks
1/2 large pomegranate, peeled and deseeded
3 tbsp condensed milk
Handful of small black and red grapes

*The best thing about using fresh young coconut is that you get to have a nice tall glass of fresh coconut juice! The best thing in the world especially if you’re living right on the equator and experiencing high 30s all year round!

**You can use any other kinds of mango i.e. Kensington Pride mangoes, but honestly, Philippine mangoes are simply the best!

METHOD

Combine all the fruits (except the dragonfruit), cheese, palm seeds with syrup, and nata de coco in a large serving bowl. If you add the dragonfruit in now and mix everything together, its colour will bleed into the cream and make everything pink!
Add the condensed milk and cream and mix well, being careful though so that the fruits still remain intact and do not get crushed when mixing. Once everything is mixed, top with the dragonfruit chunks.
Chill in the fridge/freezer for at least three hours.
Serve and enjoy!

BON APPÉTIT

– Ally xx

Avocado & Roast Pumpkin, Kale Salad

April 23, 2015January 8, 2019 amcarmen1 Comment

Hello Everyone! Sorry for not getting this post up on Tuesday night (please forgive me) – it was quite a stressful day for me trying to get important things done. I hoped to have finished them by the evening so that I could move on and write this post for you, but it didn’t happen. Today I am a little bit more relaxed as I pretty much finished what I could do yesterday. So here is what was meant to go up for Tuesday’s post, today!

This recipe is one that started off a little bit more simpler than what you’ve seen above. It was one that I used to make a while back during my second year of University, and during that time avocados were not only in season, but cheap as well! I wanted to try out various recipes that used avocados and I came across a simple avocado and roast pumpkin mixed leaf salad. I would always pair it with marinated oven-baked chicken drumsticks or a whole chicken leg. I won’t post the marination recipe for our chicken on my blog as it’s a secret blend of ingredients that my mom came up with, but I mean, you can basically pair it with your own secret recipe or keep it simple with just the salad.

Over time I started to add a few extra ingredients here and there that I thought might jive well together in terms of flavour and texture. I added toasted walnuts, and then pomegranate seeds after I made the dish a few times with just the addition of the walnuts. There was also one time where our avocados were very overripe and basically couldn’t add it to the salad, and instead I added marinated feta cheese because that’s what I had in my fridge at the time that was sort of creamy in texture to substitute; of course flavour was no where near. Lastly, the supermarket didn’t have pre-bagged mixed leaf salad leaves so I had to go with what they did have on the shelves – kale! Quite a transformation from just an avocado and roast pumpkin mixed leaf salad to begin with I must say.

PREP TIME 15 MINS | COOKING TIME 20 MINS | SERVES 4

INGREDIENTS

2 small avocados, peeled, pitted, and cut into small chunks
1 bunch kale, stems and leaves coarsely chopped
1/2 medium-sized butternut pumpkin, cut into chunks
1/2 large pomegranate, peeled and deseeded
Handful of walnuts, toasted and roughly chopped
Marinated feta cheese
Salt and ground pepper to taste

METHOD

Preheat oven to 180C (350F or gas mark 4). Season the pumpkin with a bit of salt, ground pepper, and olive oil. Line a baking tray with foil and spread the pumpkin over the lined tray. Roast in the oven for about 20 minutes or until tender.
Meanwhile, bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Once boiling, add in the kale and simmer for about 6-8 minutes. Drain and transfer to a serving plate.
Top the kale with avocado, roasted pumpkin, feta, pomegranate seeds, and walnuts.
Enjoy the salad as it is or as a side with your preferred choice of meat.

We had ours with Mama G’s Special Spicy Roast BBQ Whole Leg Chicken!

BON APPÉTIT

– Ally xx

Vermont Maple-Pecan Cake

April 16, 2015January 7, 2019 amcarmen4 Comments

Hello Everyone and welcome to a very special post as today officially marks the 1-year anniversary of my food blog! I started up this food blog exactly a year ago during spring break, and instead of slaving away on the many assignments/projects I had at that time, I decided to spontaneously start up a blog, out of pure procrastination really. Since it was quite spontaneous, I didn’t quite put much effort into it in the beginning, as in I wasn’t bothered to purchase my own domain name, and buy a theme and customise it. I wasn’t sure of how long I’d be able to keep up with this blog (because I have tried many times and failed). I am happy that I am able to finally keep one up and running, posting 3 times a week, almost.

For the next few months or so, I will work on developing an aesthetic and a colour scheme for my blog that reflects who I am as a person – not just one who loves to cook and is passionate about all things food, but also my personality and my design style. The pink and brown was sort of a “yeah that will do for now” because it fit the default theme that I picked (which was more like “I prefer this theme that the others I’ve seen”). Anyway, so to celebrate my blog turning 1 today, I decided to bake a cake for this occasion. I wanted to bake a citrus poppyseed cake at first but for some reason, lemons were nowhere to be found in every supermarket and market that I went to. Instead, I found another recipe that stood out to me – Vermont Maple-Pecan Cake. Why I chose to attempt this cake was because I already had maple syrup in the fridge and CREAM CHEESE; like who could say no to cream cheese?!

The quantities from the original recipe that can be found on Taste of Home, makes two 6-inch round cake layers, but since my baking pans were about 8.5-inches, I decided to double the recipe until I realised that I should’ve tripled it when I poured the batter into the pans; they barely filled halfway. So I made another batch to top them off. Therefore, the quantities below have been tripled from the original to make two 8.5-inch round cake layers. Once again, Happy Anniversary to Amcarmen’s Kitchen!

PREP TIME 20 MINS | COOKING TIME 20-25 MINS | SERVES 8-10

INGREDIENTS

For the cake batter

2 & 1/2 cups plain flour
1 & 1/2 cup buttermilk*
1 cup toasted pecans, roughly chopped
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup maple syrup
170g unsalted butter, melted
1 & 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup finely chopped pecans, toasted

For the frosting

1 package (250g) cream cheese, softened
100g unsalted butter, softened
1 & 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
4 tbsp maple syrup

Toasted pecan halves, to decorate

*I could not find any buttermilk at the supermarket, so I made my own by using a tablespoon of white vinegar for every cup of milk. Set it aside for about 5 minutes for the milk to react to the vinegar. You can also substitute the vinegar for lemon juice.

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 180C (350F or gas mark 4).
Grease two 8.5-inch cake pans with a little butter and set aside
For the cake batter: Combine the plain flour, sugars, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the buttermilk, butter, syrup, and vanilla, and stir into dry ingredients until just combined. Fold in chopped pecans.
Pour into the prepared pans and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the centre comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing the cakes from the pans to wire racks to cool down completely.
For the frosting: Using an electric handheld mixer, beat the cream cheese, butter, and maple syrup in a small bowl until smooth. Then beat in the confectioners’ sugar.
Assembly: Place one cake layer on a serving plate and spread with about 1/2 cup of frosting. Top with the second layer of cake and frost the top and sides of the cake. Decorate with toasted pecan halves and store in the fridge before serving. Enjoy!

BON APPÉTIT

– Ally xx

Turón Plátanos (Banana Spring Rolls)

April 14, 2015January 7, 2019 amcarmenLeave a comment

Hello Everyone! Today’s recipe is one that my mother has been making for a while now and is loved not just by my sisters and myself, but also by my high school friends who have had the lucky chance to indulge in these simple but delicious banana fritters, or also known as Turón Plátanos. For short, it is known in the Philippines as Turón and is a very popular street food snack/meryenda. It is made up of thinly sliced bananas (preferably saba or plantains) and a slice of jackfruit, dusted with brown sugar, rolled in a spring roll wrapper and fried. Since I am not a huge fan of jackfruit, we skipped that ingredient so that I could have some to eat! You can classify it as a dessert as well as others call it a caramel banana spring roll and serve it with ice cream on the side.

One day, I’m guessing probably 5 or 6 years ago, my mom fried these up for breakfast/afternoon tea(?), I actually cannot remember for what meal of the day, and I wanted to dip these spring rolls into something so I took a bottle of ketchup and poured it into a small plate. I then dipped a spring roll into the ketchup, bit into it, and was surprised to find out that it wasn’t a savoury spring roll (because during that time she also made spring rolls that had minced pork filling). The taste was unbearable, as in the pairing of tomato ketchup and banana was just not a good one. I told my mom and sisters about it and they could not stop laughing, and even to this day they would still ask me if I would like some ketchup with my turón.

Here’s a tip that you might want to follow: what my mom does is that she makes a whole bunch of turóns, 40 to be exact, as there are 40 sheets in a pack of spring roll wrappers. Once they have been wrapped, she puts them into a container and freezes them overnight and fries them the next day, straight from the freezer, no defrosting required. She says that this way the rolls are crispier when fried. Also, making them in big batches and freezing them allows you to fry them over a few days/weeks instead of having to make just a few each time you feel like having some.

PREP TIME 24 HOURS* | COOKING TIME 4-5 MINS | MAKES 40 ROLLS

*This includes setting aside the rolls in the freezer overnight before frying.

INGREDIENTS

10 ripe plantains, cut into 4 lengthwise
1 pack (40 sheets) large spring roll wrappers
1 cup brown sugar
Cooking oil, for frying

METHOD

Add the brown sugar to a small plate so that you can roll the plantains over it and coat them with enough sugar. Then place the sugar coated plantain on top of a spring roll wrapper and fold, locking the wrapper on each side.
Place in a container and repeat until all the plantains have been sugar coated and wrapped. Freeze overnight.
In a small (or medium, depending on how many you’re going to fry) pan, heat the oil over medium-high. Make sure it is quite hot before adding the wrapped plantains in. Fry until the wrapper turns golden brown.
Drizzle with caramelised sugar (optional) and serve hot for dessert or meryenda – with ice cream on the side if you wish. Enjoy!

BON APPÉTIT

– Ally xx

Bulalo (Beef Bone Marrow Soup)

April 9, 2015January 7, 2019 amcarmenLeave a comment

Hello Everyone! So today’s dish is also a classic and most favourite Filipino main dish that can be found on, if not all, most menus across the Philippines. Bulalo, as stated in the title above, is a beef bone marrow soup that is light in colour and as the name states, uses beef shanks and marrow bones paired with various vegetables such as bok choy, corn cobs, green beans, etc. Because of the popularity of this dish, many restaurants and eateries across the Philippines specialise in Bulalo. Some of the most famous “Bulalohan” can be found in Tagaytay City (Cavite) and Santo Tomas (Batangas).

It is not a very hard dish to prepare – simple ingredients and simple cooking is all it really takes. In fact, all your really need for this dish is time and patience. The key to preparing this dish though is to choose the appropriate meat, shanks to be specific, and to make it as tender as possible. To achieve this is to simmering the beef for longer periods of time; it also releases all of its flavour. For me, the best tasting bulalo I’ve had to date was at Nina’s Itikan in Santa Clara, Bulacan. Even though they specialise in itik (duck), their bulalo was very rich in flavour. Even my dish that I am going to share with you today cannot match to its flavour!

PREP TIME 10 MINS | COOKING TIME 2 HOURS 10 MINS | SERVES 4

INGREDIENTS

1kg beef shank
2L water
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 corn on a cob, cut into 4 equal parts
1 large potato, cut into chunks
1 long red chilli
1 medium sized onion, quartered
1 small bunch bok choy
1 small bunch green beans, trimmed
1 stalk lemon grass, halved and bruised
2 tsp salt
2 tsp whole black peppercorns

METHOD

Pour water into a large cooking pot together with the salt, peppercorns, and lemongrass. Bring the water to a boil. Once boiling, add the beef shanks in and simmer for about 1 and a half hours; if you are using a pressure cooker then 30 minutes should do the trick.
Then add in the chilli, garlic, and onions, and simmer for a further 30 minutes until the meat is tender. Add in the corn, green beans, and potatoes, and simmer for another 10 minutes, then followed by the bok choy. If broth needs a bit more salt, then add in a few teaspoons of fish sauce to season to taste.
Serve hot with steamed rice and enjoy! A great dish to share during cold, rainy day/night to warm up your insides!

BON APPÉTIT

– Ally xx

Crispy Pata (Deep-fried Pork Leg)

April 7, 2015January 7, 2019 amcarmenLeave a comment

Hello Everyone! After spending the past month in the Philippines, I thought that it’d be a good idea to share some of the foods that I came across and ate along the way. A classic dish that I will be sharing with you is the very famous Crispy Pata, or Deep-fried Pork Leg. Crispy Pata can be found in most eating places in the Philippines; one place that we dined at while staying Lucena City specialises in this dish and is even called Bubbles Crispy Pata & Restaurant. I remember the first time I came here with my cousins from the Barrientos side, my cousin JR joked about ordering a crispy para dish EACH. I think we ended up ordering one between two people, which, looking back, in my opinion is still quite a lot to eat between two; but just like me, he loves him some crispy pata. What I love about this very simple dish, is the crispy skin and of course the very tender meat beneath that layer of crispy goodness.

As you probably would’ve already figured out from my description above, and the photographs, Crispy Pata is a famous Filipino pork dish that uses a whole pig’s leg. The leg (or pata) is made tender by simmering in water along with other spices, mainly peppercorns and bay leaves. It is then deep-fried until the texture becomes very crunchy. The dish is then served with various dipping sauces, the main being a soy-vingear sauce with chopped onions, or along with some pickled green papaya known as atchara, served as either a main dish with steamed rice, or as beer food known as pulutan.

Crispy Pata is definitely an easy dish to cook, but be cautious as the process does involve dangerous steps. Deep frying a whole leg can cause the hot oil to be uncontrollable. It is a must to slightly (not fully, as the cover can pop-up due to pressure) cover the cooking pot while frying. What my mom does is that instead of submerging the whole leg in scalding hot oil, she adds enough oil to submerge at least half of the leg and fries it for about 15 minutes or until golden brown. She then cautiously turns the leg and fries the other side for the same amount of time in medium heat until it becomes crispy. This is quite possibly one of the reasons why I only ever have crispy pata at a restaurant or when I’m home and my mom is there to do it for me – I don’t like the frying process!

PREP TIME 24 HOURS* | COOKING TIME 2 HOURS 30 MINS | SERVES 4

*Includes setting aside the boiled pork leg in the fridge overnight to draw out the moisture before deep-frying.

INGREDIENTS

1 whole pig’s leg (about 2 or 2.5kg)
12 to 15 cups water
8 to 12 cups cooking oil
6 pcs dried bay leaves
2 tbsp whole black peppercorns
1 & 1/2 tsp salt

For the soy dipping sauce

1/3 cup dark soy sauce
1 small red onion, diced
1 small tomato, diced
Juice of two calamansi**

For the vinegar dipping sauce

1/3 cup white vinegar
3 cloves garlic, crushed
3 red bird’s eye chillies, halved
Whole peppercorns

**Calamansi (or calamondin), is a hybrid between a mandarin orange and a kumquat. It is widely cultivated in the Philippines and primarily used in cooking to flavour foods and drinks. If calamansi isn’t available, you may substitute it with lemon or lime, but the taste will not be the same. I can’t say exactly what the difference in taste is, but I think calamansi is a tad more sour than a lemon/lime, and has a slight orange taste to it.

METHOD

Pour water into a large cooking pot along with the bay leaves and peppercorns. Bring to a boil. Once boiling, add in the whole pork leg and simmer under mediumm-high heat until the leg becomes tender (about 1.5 to 2 hours).
Remove the tender leg from the cooking pot, transfer to a plate large enough to fit it and set aside until the temperature goes down. Once it has cooled down, place a clean cloth above the leg and refrigerate overnight. Remove from the fridge a few hours before cooking to bring it back to room temperature. Some recipes I’ve seen don’t require you to refrigerate the meat, I do it so that it draws out excess moisture from the leg.
At this point you may want to rub on some different spices such as garlic powder, ground black pepper, and salt onto the skin. If you do, let it stand for 15 minutes for the leg to absorb the rub. If you don’t want to season it any further, which is what I did, then you can move onto frying.
Heat a clean large cooking pot (preferably with cover), over high heat and pour the cooking oil in. When the oil becomes hot, turn the heat down to medium high. Carefully lower the leg into the hot oil and deep fry. Cook until one side becomes brown and crispy, about 10 to 15 minutes, and then cautiously flip the leg to brown and crisp the other side. Be extra careful in doing this procedure.
Turn the heat off and remove the crispy pork leg. Transfer it to a wide serving plate.
Combine all the ingredients together for the separate dipping sauces dance serve together with the crispy pata!

BON APPÉTIT

– Ally xx

Easter Hot Cross Buns

April 5, 2015January 7, 2019 amcarmenLeave a comment

Hello Everyone! It’s been a while hasn’t it? Bare with me as I get back on track with my posting schedule, but I must warn you once again that I may or may not be travelling back to the Philippines, and as you already know, Internet connection will once again be disrupted, but hopefully for only a week or so. I am aware that it is a Sunday, and on amcarmenskitchen it should in fact be a Review Sunday! But not today for I have a special post for you guys tonight as it is Easter Sunday! I will sort out my reviews from various places that I visited during my month-long trip to the Philippines and get working on them to have one up for next week.

I remember how every bakery in Sydney, be in along the streets, inside a shopping centre, or supermarket, smelled of freshly baked hot cross buns. I definitely miss those chocolate chip flavoured ones from Baker’s Delight! A hot cross bun is a spiced sweet bun made with currants or raisins and marked with a cross on the top, traditionally eaten on Good Friday in most parts of Europe, the United States, and Australia/New Zealand. Apparently, hot cross buns may go on sale in Australia and New Zealand as early as New Year’s Day or even right after Christmas.

To be honest, I was quite reluctant on whether or not I should post this up because a few things went wrong even though I followed the recipe from Taste very carefully. My buns did not at all look like the photograph and I think it because I under baked the buns (even though I followed the recipe). Okay, I technically didn’t quite follow it because the dough was very wet and quite sticky so I added probably the equivalent of about 1/2 or 3/4 more cups of flour. Maybe this is where it went wrong? I don’t know. Half of the buns deflated when I removed them from the oven (this is why I mentioned that I may have quite possibly under baked them), and they were still pretty pale when they had an extra 15 minutes in the oven. The crosses ended up appearing the same in terms of colour as the bun and didn’t look as evident. Oh the many mishaps; and now you see why I was hesitant to show my fail buns. Anyway, I deserve an A for effort as this is my first time making bread ever! And even still I am showing you my result!

When I reheated the buns again our small electric oven for about 6-8 minutes (for our afternoon snack), the tops browned nicely; and it was only then did I decide that maybe I should post it on my blog even if they don’t look that appetising. However, by this time, having been in the oven for quite some time since the initial baking, the bottoms and even the outside became quite crusty, however, the inside remained soft and dense. The 6 that are missing from the photograph were the deflated ones that we ate, and so I only managed to photograph the remaining 6. I will definitely give this recipe another go some other time.

PREP TIME 2 HOURS 20 MINS | COOKING TIME 20-25 MINS | MAKES 12 BUNS

INGREDIENTS

For the dough

4 cups plain flour
1 & 1/2 cups of raisins (or currents/sultanas)
1 cup milk
1/4 cup caster sugar
40g butter
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 sachets (7g each) dried yeast
1 & 1/2 tsp mixed spices (I used cinnamon, cloves, & nutmeg)
Pinch of salt

For the flour paste

1/4 cup plain flour
3 tbsp water

For the glaze

1/3 cup water
2 tbsp caster sugar

Butter to serve

METHOD

Bread Dough: Combine flour, yeast, sugar, mixed spices, and salt in a large bowl.
Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat and then add in the milk. Heat for about a minute, or until the mixture is lukewarm. Add warm milk mixture and eggs to flour mixture. Then, using a flat-bladed knife, mix until the dough almost comes together. Use clean hands to finish mixing to form a soft dough.
Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes, or until the dough is smooth. Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Set aside in a warm, draught-free place for 1 to 1 & 1/2 hours, or until the dough doubles in size.
Punch the dough down to its original size and add the raisins to the dough. Knead with the raisins for about a minute on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Divide into 12 even portions. Shape each portion into a ball. Place balls onto a large tray lined with baking paper, about 1cm apart, and cover with plastic wrap. Set aside in a warm, draught-free place for 30 minutes, or until buns double in size. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 190C.
Flour Paste: Mix flour and water together in a small bowl until smooth, adding a little more water if paste is too thick. Spoon into a small snap-lock bag and snip off a corner of the bag. Pipe flour paste over tops of buns to form crosses.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until buns are cooked through.
Glaze: Place water and sugar into a small saucepan over low heat, and stir until the sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil and let it boil for about 3-4 minutes. Then, brush the warm glaze over the hot cross buns. Serve warm or at room temperature.

BON APPÉTIT

– Ally xx

Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies

March 24, 2015January 5, 2019 amcarmen4 Comments

Hello Everyone! First off, I’d like to apologise for not posting a recipe over the weekend – reason being just that I haven’t had the time to sit down and write one, and even better, my laptop charger decided that it was time for it to die. Also, another heads up, I will be leaving Lucena tomorrow and back to Bulacan where I will once again have no connection, so this will be the last post for March! I will see you again in April when I come back from my vacation!

Moving on, today’s recipe is a belated one as it was meant to go up on Valentine’s Day. But for those who have been following for a while, you would’ve known that that was a busy week for me. I spent late morning/early afternoon of Valentine’s Day with a few of my very close friends over brunch at Cuckoo Callay for their Bacon Festival. I spent the rest of the day finalising my packing, moving all my things to a friends house, and having dinner with Vidhya that night. I left Sydney the next day.

I’ve made these a total of 3 times now. The first two were a complete fail and the third time was ALMOST a fail but worked out in the end. The first time I filled my square pan right to the top. I forgot how deep that pan was but nevertheless the brownies were too thick. The top started to brown a lot and it was nowhere close to being halfway done. The second time I tried it, I made the same mistake, but it wasn’t that I didn’t learn from my first mishap, it was another miscalculation on my side. I used a bigger dish this time, but one recipe wasn’t enough to fill it, do I doubled the quantities. It didn’t fill up all the way to the top, but it was still too thick. The brownie cooked about 3/4 of the way and the bottom was still batter. The second time I made it, I had planned on bringing it to office as a treat for my boss and managers, but because I didn’t want to bring in underdone brownies, I waited until my next day off to make the brownies again and finally bring them in on my last day of work.

Now for the third batch, I used 1 and a half recipes this time and it was just the right thickness, FINALLY. When I said that it was an almost fail, it was because it was taking three times as long as it should to bake in the oven. The reason is because firstly, the oven at the lodge in Sydney is just unreliable. Secondly, I noticed that the top was starting to brown and the brownies aren’t all the way cooked yet, so I resulted to having to cover the top with foil so that it’d stop browning any further. Anyway, it got there in the end and it was a huge hit in the office! And Vidhya loved it as well, even though the had some from the first batch.

The original recipe can be found on Sally’s Baking Addiction. As stated before, I used 1 and a half recipes (just for the red velvet batter, I stuck to the same quantities for the cheesecake mix) from Sally’s so that my brownies were of the right thickness for my baking dish (about 8″ x 13″). Also, since at that time I was in midst of clearing out my pantry, I only had about a half cup of plain flour left, and quite a bit of self rising. I didn’t want to use self rising because I didn’t want it to rise, and Vidhya wasn’t home so I couldn’t borrow her plain flour. So I ended up using what’s left of Jialing’s wholemeal flour that she left at my place. I don’t exactly know if using wholemeal changes the texture or the taste, but it worked out in the end.

PREP TIME 15 MINS | COOKING TIME 45 MINS | SERVES 6-8

INGREDIENTS

For the red velvet brownies

1 & 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup wholemeal flour
170g unsalted butter
3 large free range eggs
6 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 & 1/2 tbsp liquid or gel red food colouring
1 tsp white vinegar
1/4 teaspoon salt

For the cheesecake mix

8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 large free range egg, yolk only
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

METHOD

Preheat oven to 180C. Grease an 8×13 baking dish with a little butter. Set aside.
Red Velvet Brownie Mix: Beat the eggs together in a small bowl and set side. Then melt the butter in a large microwave safe bowl in 30-second increments until fully melted.
Stir in the sugar, vanilla extract, cocoa powder, salt, food coloring, and vinegar, mixing each of the ingredients into the batter in that order.
Whisk in the eggs, then fold in the flour until completely incorporated. Do not overmix.
Pour the brownie batter into prepared baking pan. Leave about 3 or 4 tablespoons to top the mixture later for the top.
Cheesecake Mix: Beat the softened cream cheese, sugar, egg yolk, and vanilla extract in a medium-sized bowl using a hand-held electrical mixer on medium speed. Make sure that the mixture is completely smooth (about a minute or so).
Dollop spoonfuls of the cream cheese mixture on top of the prepared brownie batter and top with the remaining tablespoons of brownie batter. Glide a knife through the layers, creating a swirl pattern.
Bake the brownies for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Once down, allow the brownies to cool completely before cutting into squares.
Cover the brownies and store at room temperature for 3 days or in the refrigerator for up to 6 days.