My first attempt on French Macaron

After reading countless of blogs about these little minions, I finally joined this crazy trend.
Although I made a promise that my first macaron bite has to be the ones from Pierre Hermé, I got a little too impatient of waiting for the day I will set foot in Paris. *sigh* So here I am breaking my own vow.
Although only few and very simple ingredients are used, It's quite interesting how many were unsuccessful at their first, second, even third attempts in making macarons. So It got me curious than intimidated. For starters, many advised to use the French method than the Italian counterpart. Everyone has their own preference and even swear by them. Then there is the "aging" of the egg whites. What does that mean? Well it means allowing the separated egg whites to dehydrate both inside the fridge and in room temperature for up to 5 days before incorporating them with the rest of the ingredients!! Now that sounds ridiculous. So since it's my first time, it wouldn't hurt that much to fail if I try the simplest procedure I could find.
First I searched for a video about the "macaroonage" step in making macarons to know the consistency I should be aiming for. It should be lava-like or molten.Then  I came across a video of Lorraine Pascale and fell in love with her in an instant! I like her approach in keeping everything simple. Like just what she said, baking is not always fast, but it's always easy! :)

Ingredients:
125 grams fine ground almonds
125 grams powdered sugar
40 grams egg whites
Sift the ground almonds and powdered sugar into a bowl. Add the egg whites and mix together into a paste.
Add the color of your choice.

In another bowl:
40 grams egg whites
110 grams sugar + 2 Tbsp water boiled together.

Boil together the sugar and water in medium heat without stirring. Meanwhile whisk  the egg whites to a medium peak. When sugar syrup reaches a 110° C, remove from heat and with the mixer still on, gently add the sugar syrup in a thin stream while constantly beating the egg whites. Mix until stiff peaks form.

** Because in the past I have had my fair share of failed boiled sugar and I still don't have a candy thermometer (I cannot stress enough how vital it is in baking), I did not use this version.
And like what I said, I'd go for the easier way. Therefore whip the egg whites till foamy and gradually add the sugar (omitting the water of course) until stiff peaks form.

Now the macaroonage step: Add the meringue to the paste and mix the batter only in a maximum of 50 turns. The consistency must be lava-like.
Place inside a pastry bag with a 10mm tip and pipe small, evenly spaced dollops on a baking sheet.
Tap the baking sheet against the counter few times to ensure the shells are smoothed down.
Leave the macarons to rest at room temperature, uncovered for 20-30 minutes or until the batter does not stick to your fingers when you touch them.
Bake for 12-15 mins at 170 with the oven door slightly ajar.
Cool completely before adding the filing.

For the filling:

150 grams of semi sweet chocolate
 50 ml cream
2 tsp instant coffee powder

Melt altogether until smooth.

This recipe makes 30 macarons. They came out lovely and the feet!! oh they had feet!! :)

Home is where the best food is...

Cebu City, that's the place where I grew up. Being away from home doesn't just get me homesick.. I think it's more like, for a lack of better term, "foodsick". It doesn't mean that I don't enjoy a bit about Finnish food but the fact that I don't have access to what I'm craving for is torture!!!

Native delicacies of all sorts are just few of the MANY things I really miss the most back home to the extent that they have frequented my dreams! LOL Imagine dreaming of a flying banana cue! Ridiculous, isn't it? Unfortunately for me I can't even make the simplest banana cue because in Finland you can only find 1 type of banana. :) A "saging lakatan" won't make justice to substitute "saging saba".  So without further ado, here are the culprits of my undying cravings for native food.

**All photos are my own unless stated otherwise. Copied photos are credited from source.


1. Puto (nga naay violet sa ibabaw) & Kutchinta
 Steamed rice cakes and kutchinta (no english translation). I remember a distinctly different sound from this male vendor who sells puto and kutchinta. When the clock strikes 3 in the afternoon, expect this vendor to honk his bicycle horn and shouts "Puto na kutchinta!!! Alas tres na... isnack namo!!!" Even if he's late,  he still considers it 3 o'clock! :D We would then rush out of our homes to buy his tasty treats! And he really is good in building rapport to his customers. No wonder he sells 'em in a jiffy! :)

photo by http://laherbabuena.wordpress.com/2009/09/27/kutchinta/

2. Masi
Made of ground rice filled with crushed peanuts and caramelized sugar. Mom used to tell me nga ang "masi" kay gi hulma sa ilok sa tindera maong lami!!.LOL

3. Balanghoy
Made of cassava or manioca, grated coconut meat topped with caramelized sugar.

4. Ensaymada sa Julie's bakeshop
Light, soft, airy and freshly baked bread. Julie's ikaw na! :)

5. Banana cue and Turon
Made of banana (saba) deep fried in oil with brown sugar. Wrap the bananas with pieces of jackfruit in a spring roll wrapper to make "turon". Yes they haunt me in my dreams!!!! Grrrrr

photo by http://flickrhivemind.net/Tags/plaintain

6. Dolor's kakanin
The pride of Malabon. This is by far the best tasting kakanin or sapin-sapin I have ever had. I don't know how it's done but I do know it's made from glutinous rice.

7. Linusak
Made of mashed semi-ripe bananas (saba) with grated coconut meat and sugar.

photo by http://likecebu.com/tag/best/

8. Halo-Halo
Literal english translation: "Mix Mix". This is a perfect summer dessert when the temperature in Philippines reaches over 30 degrees. It's a mixture of both fresh and preserved local fruits and various boiled sweet beans with finely shaved ice and milk, served in a tall glass or bowl and topped with your favorite ice cream flavor.

photo by http://joel7663.wordpress.com/tag/halo-halo/

9. Chinese Ngohiong & Puso
These are simply divine!! The best ngohiong for me is the one near University of San Carlos where I studied in college. These are made of "singkamas" or Jicama, spiced with some secret ingredients, wrapped in a spring roll wrapper and deep fried in oil. Best eaten with "puso" or "hanging rice" in english. It's rice cooked by steaming inside weaved coconut leaves. And don't forget to dip it in it's special hot sauce. It enhances the flavor! :)

10. Utan bisaya (Native vegetable soup)
The last time I visited Cebu, I wanted to eat this almost everyday!!! That's how I wanted local vegetables so badly. A mixture of yellow squash, malunggay leaves, okra, alugbati leaves, sikwa (i don't even know the english terms for some of' em!LOL ) especially with dried fish and coconut milk!! Nothing compares! :)

Any native food you're craving right now? :)

Garlic & ginger prawns

One of my all-time fave. Learned this from mom but of course I had to make my own version :)

Ingredients:

400 grams of prawns, peeled & deveined (you may leave the tail as you wish)
50 ml soy sauce
2 Tbsp oyster sauce
100 ml 7-up
drizzle of lime
4-5 garlic cloves, minced
4 ginger slices, julienned
red bell pepper or chili pepper, sliced
Salt and pepper to taste
2 Tbsp oil


1. Marinate the prawns with 7-up, soy sauce, oyster sauce, half of the sliced ginger and few lime juice for at least 30 mins.
2. Heat the oil in the pan. Fry the garlic in medium heat until lightly browned. Be careful not to burn the garlic.
3. Remove the garlic and set aside. Switch to med-high heat.
4. Sauté the rest of the ginger and add the marinated prawns until pink and tender (usually about 3-4 mins). Do not overcook.
5. Toss the red pepper. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the fried garlic.
6. Remove from heat and serve.

Chocolate custard cake

Short-term memory loss might be a part of aging but there's simply no forgiving for not remembering your mom's birthday!!!! Of all the special dates I can forget why on earth does it have to be hers? It's a shame I know.. and the worst part is, I only remembered by the time i opened facebook, thanks to the birthday reminder! So to make things up, I made her my "I'm sorry i-forgot-your-birthday chocolate custard cake!" :)

Seppo wishes mom a happy birthday!

A frustrated chef in the making

Since time immemorial I have always known that I love eating! No one in my family can argue about that because of the apparent physical evidence. :) When I was a child until mid college I was fat, let's just say "over healthy". I grew up feasting mom's home cooking and for me that was the best. I attended short baking and cooking courses because my love for food was simply insatiable. I have always followed cooking shows and admired show-off chefs! :D

I have lived in Finland for almost 3 years now. At the moment I am studying to become a cook, but I would say that becoming a pâtissière sounds more appealing to me.:) Here I have more time for kitchen trial and errors (though they don't come cheap! ) than when I was in the Philippines. I have had my fair share of unsuccessful attemptS resulting to countless frustrations and to the point of ALMOST giving up, but glad I never did. And so I went on because I knew this was something I really wanted. :)

I love reading food blogs, test their stuff and tweak the recipes to my own taste. I will be posting stuff I've made, will make or dare to make. I'm only a beginner and still have a lot to learn. I may not give you excellent photos since  I don't own a sophisticated DSLR cam and I don't think I will ever have one. It is way too much luxury for my liking and learning how to use it is another thing!LOL I simply trust the abilities of my point-and-shoot cam and of course the power of Photoshop! I might be posting a similar recipe from another blog but rest assured, I'll give the credits to them.

New year, new blog

Happy New Year everyone!! :)

What a better way to start 2012 than finally scribbling my first blog. This has been looooong overdue as I'm always procrastinating! *sigh* Slacking is the very word I hate to describe myself. But well, It's never too late to tighten myself a bit especially when welcoming a promising new year. :)
Another thing I'm kinda worried about is that I'm not very good at writing. My purpose for this blog is to have a virtual diary where I can easily access the dishes and pastries I have tried and tested than rummaging through the disorganized and sometimes missing pages of my recipes.So let's get started! :)