Kulinarya September Challenge: Filipino-Spanish Dishes!

!Hola everyone!

I am here again and in case you were wondering where I was for the past 4 months since my last post, I was working with some paperworks to be with my husband and I am already with Mi Amore at this moment! oh love love...(hearts and kisses) wishing..wishing...my little man will be with us soon here too..=)

Moving on, for this September in KCC, I am proud and honored to be the co-host together with our special guest, Ziggy of myfilipinokitchen.com. The theme we have chosen for Kulinarya September is: Filipino-Spanish Dishes!

I have chosen Arroz caldo, which literally means "hot rice". Arroz is a spanish word which means rice and caldo means hot. It is similar to chinese congee which is also popular in the Philippines and have equally been made in various ways to suit the tastes of the us Filipinos. Arroz caldo is more closely related to risotto, due to its yellow hue from saffron and also by the large cuts of meat.

The usual Arroz caldo I grew up with is the native chicken Arroz caldo. Using native chicken meat gives a very rich flavor and the broth from it absolutely gives a very silky texture to the rice. Unfortunately, native chicken meat doesn't exist in Doha. =P

Beef Arroz Caldo

1/2 kl beef pieces cut into chunks (choose beef meat with good amount of marbling)

1 thumb-sized fresh finely chopped

2 cloves garlic finely chopped

10 cups water

1 beef buillon cube

salt to taste

2 cups-lightly packed, freshly-cooked Asian long grain rice (I used Jasmine rice) if you are in the Philippines- use 7-Tonner

few saffron threads (optional)

Top with:

crispy fried garlic

chopped chives/scallions

sliced boiled egg

deep-fried beef slices

fish sauce or salt and black pepper to taste

Combine first 6 ingredients. Boil until the meat is fork-tender. Add water if needed.

Remove the meat from the broth. Set aside. I fried a few pieces of meat for added texture to the whole dish. You may strain the stock/broth to another bowl if you want to get rid of the garlic and ginger.

Add freshly-cooked rice and saffron threads to the broth (about 5 cups of broth) and simmer gently until the rice becomes creamy, add water if the mixture becomes too thick. Turn off the heat. Stir in the cooked meat.

Serve topped with crispy-fried beef slices, sliced boiled egg, crispy-fried garlic, chopped scallions and fish sauce/salt & pepper to taste.

* That alternating slices of fried beef and yellow "stuff" is actually the boiled egg. So funny looking, but it actually tastes good though. =)

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Kulinarya April Challenge: Polvoron

Hurray for this month's Kulinarya challenge... Polvoron!!!

This sweet and uberly easy treat is very close to my heart as I have been making these since elementary school! I used to sell these together with other delightful Filipino goodies such as yema (dulce de leche), cheese sticks and ube(purple yam) candies. So when I knew that this will be for April's challenge, my first reaction was "oh yeah!!!

Now, Polvoron comes in many variations. The classic which doesn't have any add-ons and mainly consists of four ingredients- toasted flour, butter, sugar and powdered milk. Other flavored variations include cookies and cream, pinipig, cashew, chocolate and durian. Yes, durian polvoron which is obviously native here in Davao City as we have quiet an all-year round harvest of durian, geezzz you have to make durian flavored with just about anything ei! =)

I don't have any written recipe for this as it is super easy, even my toddler can do it, but of course I won't let him just yet as it involves some cooking in the stove.

My recipe is 1:1:.5:.5, super easy to remember right?

Some said it's better than Goldilocks, so try it yourself if you share the same verdict, and of course, don't forget to let me know. =)

Instead of using one type of powdered milk, I combined skim milk and buttermilk which made it more creamier.

Polvoron 1155

1 cup All Purpose Flour (APF)

1/2 or .5 cup butter non-salted

1 cup powdered milk (half skim milk and half of buttermilk)

1/2 or .5 cup white fine sugar

Add-ons: Optional

1 small pack Oreo Cookies (3 cookies)

1/4 cup cashew nuts chopped finely

1/4 cup pinipig

Procedure:

Turn heat to medium. Melt butter in a shallow pan.

Lower the heat, add APF, toast until light brown. Stir continously as flour tend to burn very easily.

Add powdered milk and sugar. Stir for the next 2 minutes to combine. Turn off the heat.

I divided this classic polvoron into three equal parts and placed in bowls and made a variation of cashew and cookies and cream and of course classic polvoron. Just stir in the add-on of your choice.

Mold using polvoron press and wrap individually with chinese paper. I "lost" my polvoron press and so I ended up using the measuring cups instead for the design in the picture. The 1/4 cup worked really well. Invert and just lightly tap the bottom of the cup and let the gravity do the rest.

Enjoy the buttery and milky goodness of Polvoron!

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Kulinarya: Empanada!

My first Kulinarya Challenge! yahoo!


This month's Kulinarya dish was hosted by Kath of A Cupcake or Two who chose Empanada, which I think is perfect as I have been wanting to make this stuffed pastry since high school!


I used to live with my aunt when I was still studying in Davao Oriental and Manang Inday, used to make these and sell it along our school entrance, and I was really proud of her because she absolutely made the best ever empanada of all time! Deliciously satisfying all-in-one meal! I actually asked her to give me a few as I'd be happy to help her sell it to my classmates, yes, I'm one of those students you see selling "kakanins" inside the classroom during recess and in my trusty bayong goody bag included yema, cheese sticks, kool-em mints, polvoron and ube! And I proudly made my own products, except for the candies, of course. =)

So, I went to look up for the perfect empanada dough recipe and I saw this empanada de kaliskis at Kusina ni Manang, which looked really challenging and I thought the kaliskis were really wonderful!

But, the kaliskis didn't seem to work well with me...I had a hard time with the oil dough and I thought maybe it was because of the quality of the shortening I used, however Manang used pork lard and it worked well, but one thing's for sure, these empanadas were very tasty! I'll be making these again using the traditional dough and maybe kaliskis using a different shortening. hmmm..

Pork Tenderloin Empanada

Kaliskis Dough
Recipe from Kusina Ni Manang

Water Dough:

200 gm all purpose flour
1/2 tsp white vinegar
50 gm pork lard (or shortening)
30 gm sugar100 gm water

Oil Dough:

180 gm all purpose flour
100 gm pork lard (or shortening)


Procedure:

1. For water dough, mix water, sugar, and vinegar. Mix in flour then add pork lard (or shortening). Knead to a soft dough. Wrap in plastic and let rest for at least 30 minutes.
2. For oil dough, use a food processor to blend well (use short bursts to make it crumb-looking).
3. Use a rolling pin to flatten water dough. Distribute oil dough on half of water dough. Cover the oil dough with the other half of water dough so the water dough completely envelopes oil dough. Leave as little of the water dough at the edges just so you can seal water dough nicely all around oil dough.
4. Flatten and pop any bubble, but seal tightly so oil dough does not leak out.
5. Fold into thirds (the ends of the long rectangle) then fold in two so you end up with a squarish form. Flatten again to make it rectangular then fold in two again to make it square.
6. Flatten again to make it rectangular, about 9x13, then roll like jelly roll to form a log using the longer side.
7. Tap the ends of the log to make them flatter before starting to slice.
8. Slice every 3/4" to 1 inch (or slice and fill one at a time).
9. Use your palm to initially flatten, then use the rolling pin. Flatten the edges more since those are going to be crimped/pleated (and therefore, if you make it thick at the start, pleating will make it thicker). The middle should be thick enough so it does not break open when you put the filling in.
10. Place about 1 tbsp of filling. Pinch the edges and pleat/crimp.
11. Deep fry in 375 deg F oil for about 2 minutes, then drain on paper.

For step by step pictures, please go to Kusina ni Manang here.

Empanada Filling

1/4 kilo Pork tenderloin diced
1 onion minced
2 cloves garlic minced
1 carrot diced
1 large potato diced
3 tsbp raisins
2 tsbp black olives sliced
salt & pepper to taste
1/2 cup pork stock with 1 tsp cornstarch

Procedure:

1. Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a pan, saute onion and garlic until translucent and lightly browned.
2. Add pork, sweat for 3 minutes.
3. Then add carrot, potato, raisins, black olives, pork stock-cornstarch slurry and season with salt and pepper. Simmer until veggies are cooked but still firm.

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