Pan de Sal Bruschetta

I had two pieces of pan de sal leftover from last weekend. Pan de Sal literally means salted bread. It's the Filipino version of dinner rolls, except that we traditionally eat it for breakfast. The dough is made with flour, sugar, eggs, yeast, lard and salt. After the dough has been worked and has risen, it is then rolled in breadcrumbs prior to baking. This bread is very similar to the English muffins but instead of shaping them into discs and rolling them in cornmeal, the pan de sal is shaped into oblongs and rolled in breadcrumbs.

Anyway, back to my story. I was hungry and the two sorry looking, almost stale pan de sals were crying out to be consumed. Instead of slathering the things with just peanut butter, I decided to make an impromptu bruschetta made from tomatoes found in my crisper, a few slices of emmental cheese and some basil leaves plucked from my garden.



Pan de Sal Bruschetta
2 Pan de Sal, sliced in half
1 Clove of garlic, smashed
2 Tomatoes, diced
2-3 Basil leaves, sliced in ribbons
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
A few slices of emmental or mozzarella cheese

1. Toast pan de sal until slightly brown.
2. Rub pan de sal with garlic.
3. Top toasts with emmental cheese.
4. In a separate bowl, mix tomatoes, basil, olive oil, salt and pepper. Mix to combine. Pour about a tablespoon on each pan de sal.
5. Toast for a few minutes to melt the cheese and wilt the tomato mixture.

Voila! An Italian twist to a Pinoy dinner roll.

I'm an M&M!

I've just been M&Mnd!



This is so fun. Try it at www.becomeanmm.com

Oatmeal Cookies with Walnuts and Raisins

I can't believe I haven't baked in almost two weeks! I was itching to bake something. I chose to bake some oatmeal cookies for hubby to bring to work and because it's my favorite cookie in the whole wide world ;-). I adapted the recipe from epicurious.com

I didn't have any dates so I just added more walnuts and rainins to compensate. My comments are in italics. Here's the original recipe:



2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup solid vegetable shortening, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup raisins (I used 1 1/2 cups)
1 cup chopped pitted dates (I didn't have any in my pantry so I omitted this from the recipe)
1 cup chopped walnuts (I used 1 1/2 cups)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with foil; butter foil (I used baking paper instead so that I don't have to butter). Blend first 5 ingredients in medium bowl.
Using electric mixer, beat butter, vegetable shortening, and both sugars in large bowl until fluffy. Beat in honey, eggs, and vanilla. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in oats, raisins, dates, and walnuts. Drop batter by tablespoonfuls (or use a medium spring loaded ice cream scoop for uniformity) onto prepared sheets, spacing mounds 2 inches apart. Flatten cookies slightly.

Bake cookies until golden brown, about 10 minutes. Cool completely on sheets. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Store airtight at room temperature.)

Makes about 4 dozen. (Mine yielded 52 cookies)

I got a very excited call from hubby telling me that the cookies he brought to work didn't even last five minutes!

Oh, how I love baking.

Family Lunch at Kusina Salud

Sorry took so long to post this. Hubby and I have been sick and had to take it easy for a few days. All is well now :-)

Last Sunday the family (all 14 of us), drove to Kusina Salud for the family's weekend glutton festival. The drive took a total of 1 1/2 hours and 3 cars.

The place was an instant hit with the first timers in the group. It's a traditional Filipino vacation home of old. Antique narra furniture interspersed with batibot chairs, local antique dolls, figurines, capiz windows, orchids and a wide variety of local knick knacks adorn the charming home. Fountains located in several areas provide soothing sounds while you dine. It's type of home that your lola would probably have if she lived in a province in the 1930's.

For this Sunday, Kusina Salud only offered buffet lunch consisting of Filipino Salad (Cucumbers, Okra, Onions, Kangkong in a choice of bagoong alamang or bagoong balayan sauce), Vegetarian Laing, Monggo with Bulalo, Fried Tuyo, Chicken Inasal and Sisig. For dessert, Saba con yelo and sponge cake with matamis na bao. My favorite was the sisig.













Despite only offering buffet that lunch, the restaurant did make us Kulawo (banana heart) Salad with Calamari in Hollandaise Sauce and Pako Salad (fern salad) upon request. Both were absolute winners. The kulawo particularly is the specialty of the house. I've only had this salad there and nowhere else. If you're in the area, a must try.





We also had a fantastic time taking pictures.













On our way home, we all bought stainless steel pitchers and grill from several stores that line the highway. They're much cheaper than what you would buy in a department store and since it's on the way, we all indulged in a little bit of shopping.

My brother Jacob and I even bought some rambutan, freshly picked from the plantation nearby and some lanzones also from the fruit stands found along the highway. Yum!

An Ambush and Rocky Road Cupcakes

I've been ambushed today! Hubby called me as I was starting to bake my rocky road cupcakes, he, his boss and five (turned out to be around ten or more) of his office mates will drop by the house in one hour. Yikes, talk about pressure! I scramble to make the house presentable and left my rocky road cupcakes to bake later in the afternoon. My dreaded day has finally come, hubby's boss is coming over for some chitchat. I never thought that I would have to get everything organized in one hour! I thought I was going to collapse of stress :-) I have no idea how I cleaned, mopped the floor, washed glasses, organized, taken a bath and blow dried my hair in an hour, but by some miracle I had done it :-)

In my day dreams, I would have welcomed our guests with elegant sandwiches, fancy beverage and served them with a decadent dessert that I baked from scratch. The house will be impeccably clean, filled with flowers and the guests would smell baking cookies in the background (I'm thinking oatmeal and walnut cookies). Instead, hubby robbed me of that fantasy and gave me one hour to have everything ready. Talk about bursting my bubble ;-)

Fortunately I had some pistachios, soda and chocomint cupcakes leftover from my baking experiment the other day. Whew! At least I had something home made to serve them. Our impromptu party was a success nonetheless. The guests seem to like my chocomint cupcakes and I got some compliments on the house. Hubby even called me from work and thanked me for all my efforts. I've demanded to be taken out to dinner later. I ain't cookin' tonight, honey!



After hubby and everyone with him left, I resumed baking my rocky road cupcakes. I used devil's food cake and for the icing, premium dark chocolate ganache with walnuts and mini marshmallows.



Decadent and fun! Let's see what my four year old nephew Jay Jay will say about it. I hope it's "Ninang, the cupcake is delicious!"

Seafood Sunday

Sunday really is the best day for our family. It is the one day of the week where everyone troop to our favorite 2nd home, LP and stuff ourselves silly. No guilt, no diets and certainly no calorie counting allowed.

My mom prepared a huge seafood buffet. She only planned to make two dishes initially but saw some fresh items in the market that she couldn't resist making.

For this sumptuous feast, my mom made:



Buttered prawns with asparagus tips, the prawns were so fresh and sweet an buttery, everyone had at least ate five large ones each (at least). I think I ate seven pieces. Hubby had probably more.


Mussels in ginger and garlic broth. This is a staple seafood dish in most Filipino homes. Here's how to make it:



Ingredients
Oil
1 head garlic, chopped
1 large white onion, chopped
1 large ginger, julienned
3 kilos mussels, cleaned
3 bunches chili leaves
water

In a huge stockpot, saute garlic, onions and ginger in oil.
Add the water and let boil.
Drop the cleaned mussels to the pot. As soon as the mussels open, turn off the heat and add the chili leaves.
Serve piping hot.

Another hit with the family is the Kuhol (escargot) in Spicy Coconut Cream sauce. There's a funny story attached to this one. My mom was in the market that morning to buy some mussels (as originally planned), she saw some kuhol being sold in one of the stalls and they were very fresh (aka, alive and jumping up and down in their containers), so she bought some and decided to cook it at our family gathering. Upon coming home, she started preparing the kuhol, they jumped right out of their bag and started crawling all very the kitchen floor. My four year old nephew JayJay managed to catch two of them and decided to keep them as "pets".



The kuhol was a huge hit since we rarely have it and my mom made an excellent dish. It's a little fussy to make, but if you have the time and patience, here's how:

1 kilo kuhol (escargot)
2 mature coconuts, grated OR 1 can coconut milk AND 1 coconut cream
2-3 cloves garlic, smashed
1 thumb-sized ginger, smashed
1 small white onion, finely chopped
Bird's eye chilis
1 bunch kangkong (swamp cabbage)
Salt to taste

To clean the kuhol:
1. Wash them in running water.
2. Soak them in tap water, fully covered for 30 minutes. Drain and repeat 3 more times. (Total of 2 hours soaking time). This is to remove the sand, lodged inside the kuhol.
3. Snip off the "tails" or the pointed eds found the the rear end of the kuhol.
4. Wash the kuhol, one by one under running water.

Now, you're finally ready to cook, here's how.
1. Extract cream from the grated mature coconut by squeezing them between your hands, the firs extraction is the COCONUT CREAM.
2. With the same coconuts, add about 1 cup of water and do a second extraction, this is the COCONUT MILK.
3. In a large wok or medium stockpot, boil onion, garlic and ginger in COCONUT MILK (2nd extraction), when boiling, add the kuhol. Boil for 3 minutes.
4. Add the COCONUT CREAM (1st extraction) and boil for another 2 minutes.
5. Add the kangkong and chilis. Season to taste and boil for another minute or until the kangkong is slightly wilted.
6. Serve hot.

Use a toothpick to fish out the meat from the shell. Enjoy!



For the meat lovers in the group, my mom made her own concoction of beef stew, inspired by an Amish dish that she had when she visited an Amish community in Lancaster. It was such a huge huge hit and would taste even better the following day. Sorry, this recipe is for family only :-)



For dessert, I just baked some vanilla cupcakes with butter cream icing. Oh, icing decoration and piping, it's the downfall of my cupcake career :-)

The kids and adults had a fun time trying out Tita Socky's new foldable bike. Even hubby biked a few blocks around the neighborhood. Upon coming home, he wanted to buy a new bike too :-)






For merienda we had Spanish chorizo, sauteed in olive oil with pan de sal and some scrambled eggs. Heaven in a bun!

The Nekkid Recipes

One of the things that I regretted in my life is not living on my own, prior to getting married. I often wondered what it was like living alone, no curfews, no rules and certainly no pesky little brother sharing the bathroom with me :-)

Hubby's off to Shanghai for the week for a business trip. During his trips abroad, I live out my single woman's fantasy of living on my own. One thing that ruins that lovely fantasy is the cooking part, what would a single, fabulous woman make for herself?

This reminded me of Jamie Oliver's Naked Chef philosophy of paring down his recipes to their bare essentials. I take no pleasure in making an elaborate meal (meaning 5 major ingredients or more) when it's only me who will eat it. It's simply easier and more cost effective to just dine out. Although being the only one without a dining companion in a nice restaurant makes me feel a bit conscious (just a tad).

This week, with hubby off to another country, I'll be a bachelorette again! Well, in terms of eating that is.

Here are two recipes that are pared to their barest essentials. They're very simple food made in less than ten minutes, slicing and dicing included. The ingredients are very cheap too!

Pan-grilled Eggplant with Soy-Calamansi Glaze



1-2 Eggplants
1 Part Calamansi juice
2 Parts soy sauce
Pinch of Salt
Olive Oil

1. Toss eggplant in olive oil and salt to coat well.
2. Grill eggplants on a non-stick pan. Pour soy sauce and calamansi to the same pan and let boil for one minute.

Tomato Egg Goo



2 Eggs, slightly beaten and lightly salted
1-2 Tomatoes, chopped
1 Clove garlic, finely chopped
Vegetable Oil
1-2 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 Teaspoon sugar

1. Mix sauce sauce and sugar in a small bowl. Make sure it has the right balance of saltiness and sweetness.
2. In a non-stick pan, saute garlic and tomatoes in oil until the tomatoes are just wilted.
3. Pour eggs to the pan, scramble and add the soy-sugar mixture.

This would go well with bell peppers too. Just add them together with the tomatoes. I love to eat them with buttered toasts or garlic fried rice.

Nekkid Recipes? Totally!