Almost there but No Cigar

Hallelujah - I have internet access. It is sad when we live in such a technology driven world, I was not able to access the internet. OK, it is the hotel I was at fault. Why would you charge for internet when you are charging me (ok, my company) 189 a night and I still had to pay 15.99 for internet and 15.00 for parking. What is that all about? I had a three-day conference in Orlando on a product my hospital purchases. So I spent the whole time listening to sale pitches while The Husband and Daughter slept, ate, and watched TV. Yes, I took them with but mainly because we were right across the street from Sea World. Did you know, it is $80 a ticket? Again, nuts! Since The Daughter is only 1, we figured we will go when she is a little older and could enjoy her time. I will post pics of the mainly different types of food I had. Some were really good and some were just bad. Anyway, I tried Brazo De Mercedes again. I used the same recipe but I didn't half the recipe. It came out really good except it broke. I was so close but no cigar. OK I forgot one part, the wax/parchment paper when I had to roll it.








Here are some pics

Before I whipped the egg whites

*After I baked the meringue.  Look, I even tried to make it pretty

 

* I was cooking the custard, it wasn't as smoothe as I liked.

* And than it broke.  IT was so good too :(

So I try again!

Kulinarya Cooking Club - Mushroom Empanadas and Goat Cheese and Olive Empanadas

One of my many blogs I read daily is Divina blog, Sense & Serendipity, this last post was about a cooking club called Kulinarya.  The Kulinarya website goal is to inspire individuals to explore into the Filipino crusine.  This months topic was Empanada.  As some of you know, I make quite a bit of empanadas.  This has been one of the first recipes I learned.  Since first learning how to make it, I have adjusted the dough recipe and even tried different combinations.  My staple are the traditional ground chicken, beef, or pork with dice carrots, potatoes, peas, and rasins.  Since then, I have created various vegetarian versions and even dessert ones.  The Husband's favorite is my pumpkin while The Daughter loves any kind I make for her.  I had the opportunity to make quite a bit of empanadas this past weekend.  It was my god daughter's 3rd birthday so I wanted to bring some for her party.  I mainly made my traditional chicken version but I also made mushroom and goat cheese and olives.  I have made the mushroom version a couple of times but this is the first time I tried goat cheese and olives.  Lets just say, I am not a fan of olives and The Husband said it would be better if there was rasins.  I think due to the saltiness of the goat cheese and the taste of the olives, a nice sweetness would have been good.  What do you think? 

My crust is actually not the traditional crust.  I use a pie crust.  I started to use this type of recipe in attempt to make it a little healthier.  Every little bit helps, at least that is what I tell myself.  Anyway, my recipe I actually don't use eggs like in all the traditional recipes.  I even bake them instead of frying them.  Here are the recipes:

Dough


Ingredients
1 1/4 Cups of All-Purpose Flour
1/4 Teaspoon Salt

1/2 Cup Butter Diced

1/4 Cup Ice Water

2 Tbs of Sugar

Directions *You could do this in a mixer or food processor

1. Put all the flour in the tool of your choice.
2. Add the butter and mix it in with the flour.
3. Once it is all incorporated, add the salt and sugar.
4. Than add the water.  It should form a ball *If it is too wet, add more flour

Mushroom Filling
Ingredients
1 Large Package of Bella Mushrooms or 10 portabella mushrooms *You could pick any type of mushrooms but I perferr the portabella types.
2 Medium Potatos

1 Cup of Diced Carrots *I cheat and I use frozen mix of carrots and peas, now you know my secrete.  I hate chopping carrots with a passion!

1 Cup of Peas
1/2 Cup of Dice Onions
2 Cloves of Garlic

Directions

1. Take the potatoes and put them into a pot of boiling water. 
2. While waiting for the potatoes to soften, chop of the mushrooms into large chunks *keep in mind, they do shrink when cook.
3. When the potatoes soften enough to be mashed, drain the water and mash the potatoes until it is very soft.  You could add butter to assist in softening the potatoes
4. Let it cool and while it is cooling, sauteed onions and garlic in the oil of your choice, I tend to use olive oil. 
5. Add the mushrooms and cook until it is tender
6. Add the carrots and peas
7. Add the mashed potatoes into the pan and than with salt and pepper. 

Goat Cheese and Olives
(Adapted from The Perfect Pantry)

Ingredients

6 oz of Goat Cheese
1/3 Cups of Pitted Black Olives *I used Kalamenta Olives, it was a bit strong for this
1 Garlic CLove mashed

1/2 Tsp of Olive Oil

Salt and Black Pepper to taste


Directions

1. Finely chop the olives
2. Mix the remainder of the ingredients with the olives and fully incorporate the ingredients.

To Assemble
I totally cheat and use an empanada press.  It allows me to be as consistant as possible. 

1. Roll out the dough into 1/3 inch thick discs
2. Place the dough into the form
3. Place the filling in the middle and fold up

 The Husband got conned to helping me make these

He thought he was being smart by making a big disc and cutting it in half

He realized the half pieces were not wide enough so he had to reroll the dough

Even The Daughter got in the action

Bake

1. Place the empanada on a greased cookie sheet.
2. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes
3. Brush a egg wash over the empanadas after the empanadas and than continue to bake for 5-10 minutes. 

 Mushroom filled

Goat Cheese and Olives

Kulinarya was started by a group of Filipinio bloggers living in Sydney, who are passionate about the Filipino culture and its cusines. Each month we will showcase a new dish along with their family recipes. By sharing these recipes, we hope you find the same passion and love for Filipino Food as we do.

If you are interested in joining our Kulinarya Cooking Club, please feel free to stop by our foodblog and leave a commnet - we would love to hear from you. 

The current members are:
Trish - Sugarlace
Kath - A Cup Cake or Two
Trissa - Trissalicious
Olive - Home Cooking and Baking
Caroline - When Adobo Met Feijoada
Peach - The Peach Kitchen
Cusinera - Busog Sarap
Asha – Fork-Spoon -Knife
Malou - Skip to Malou
Cherrie – Sweet Cherrie Pie
Acdee - Confession Nook
Valerie – A Canadian Foodie
Bel – foodgeek's diary
Divina – Sense and Serendipity

BTW I'm out of town for a couple of days with limited internet so hopefully I'm going to find a Starbucks with internet so I could post a few more things I want to talk about.

Beef Stew and Blueberry Crisp

 

Do you ever find yourself, not knowing what to make for dinner?  I do this on a daily basis.  I randomly take out a some meat in the freezer i hopes I actually know what I take out and hunt for a recipe one different blogs and website when I should be working.  Like I'm doing right now.  With a very active 1 year old, I can't seem to be able to get anything done at home so I have to do any searches and catching up on my blogs at work.  The Boss must think there is something wrong with me since I have a million and one windows open on my computer and I'm constantly typing.  So last Wednesday was one of those days.  I took out beef stew meat and I was on the hunt for a recipe.  I went the cheater way and went on the food network website.  I already knew what I had at home so I figured I'll make a hearty stew.  I even had pearl onions (I actually thought I took out stew meat and I realized it was steak but that will come up in another post :D). 

 

Beef Stew

(adapted from Food Network)

 

Ingredients

• 1 pound beef for stew, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 clove garlic, minced
• 1 3/4 cups Swanson® Beef Stock * I made my own with beef bouillon
• 2 medium onions, cut into quarters *I used pearl onions
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves, crushed
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 cups whole baby carrots *I used a regular carrot and chopped it up
• 2 medium potatoes, cut into 2-inch pieces
• 1/4 cup water

Directions

Season the beef as desired. Coat with 1 tablespoon flour. Heat the oil in a 6-quart sauce pot over medium-high heat. Add the beef and cook until it's well browned, stirring often. Add the garlic to the sauce pot and cook and stir for 1 minute.

Stir the stock, onions, bay leaf, thyme and black pepper in the sauce pot and heat to a boil. Reduce the heat to low. Cover and cook for 1 1/2 hours.

Add the carrots and potatoes to the sauce pot. Cover and cook for 30 minutes or until the beef is fork-tender and the vegetables are tender. Remove and discard the bay leaf.

Stir the remaining flour and water in a small bowl until the mixture is smooth. Stir the flour mixture in the sauce pot. Increase the heat to medium. Cook and stir until the mixture boils and thickens.

 

 * Note don't put the onions when it said to, put it in with the remainder of the vegetables.

** It didn't really take 1.5 hours to cook the meat.  I might have overcooked it.

*** Watch the meat when browning the meat, I burned mine slightly

**** Watch it while the sauce thickens to make sure the meat and veggies won't burn

***** You may need more stock, mine wasn't enough

 

Other wise it came out good.  I only had leftovers enough for lunch and The Husband didn't complain!

 

 

For dessert I made an blueberry crisp I adapted from Kitchen Worthy.

 

I generally make an apple crisp during the summer, I don't know why but I always tend to make any type of crisp during the summer.  I'm weird like that.  It was so good.  Not too sweet and if The Daughter wasn't allergic to nuts I think some pecans would add a nice touch.  But no nuts in my house.  I can't wait until the day I am able to cook with nuts again and The Daughter could eat it but until then I have to restricted to what I could make.  Anyway, I was just reading the different entries on FoodBuzz and one of the individuals I read regularly posted this wonderful recipe. 

 

Blueberry Crisp

Filling
2 pints blueberries (fresh or frozen) *I used frozen, I would defrost a little prior baking
1-2 tablespoons sugar
1-2 tablespoons flour

 

 

Topping
¾ cup flour
¾ cup packed light brown sugar
6 tablespoons butter
½ cup rolled oats (regular oatmeal)
½ teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine the blueberries, sugar and flour, and toss to mix. Put in a buttered shallow baking dish (pie pan or 8×8 brownie pan). To make topping, combine flour, sugar and butter and mix until it looks like course crumbs. Add oats and cinnamon and mix a little more. Spread topping evenly over fruit and pat down gently with your fingertips. Bake until the top is light brown and crisp, about 35-40 minutes. Serve warm with ice cream (this part is not optional).

 

It was so so good.  I am even hording the leftovers so I could keep eating it. 

 

Cream Puffs

I always thought cream puffs and eclairs are so hard.  I was probably scared of using the piping bag.  Now I'm obsessed with using it now.  I have been practicing my cake decorating.  BTW you can't over whip butter cream.  I keep the process is similar to bread making which I am very aware how long to mix the ingredients to prevent a hard bread.  Anyway, I'm sorry I switch topics.  I do that in person too.  So I made this also for my book club.  My husband requested this actually.  Here is the recipe I got from the Food Addicts blog. 

 

 

Cream Puffs with Nutella Pastry Cream

(adapted from the Food Addicts)

Ingredients

(Pastry Dough - Pâte à Chou)

• 1 1/4 cups water
• 1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups unbleached flour
• 5 large eggs

Ingredients

(Nutella Pastry Cream)

• 16 oz. milk
• 1/4 of vanilla bean, cut and scraped out
• 3 1/2 oz. sugar, granulated
• 4 egg yolks
• 3 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 tbsp butter, unsalted
• 1 tbsp Nutella

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 375-degrees.

2. In a saucepan, bring water to a boil with butter and salt over high heat.

3. Reduce heat to moderate and add flour and mix well until mixture pulls away from sides, forming a dough.

4. Transfer dough to a mixer and beat in the eggs, 1 at a time on high speed. Batter should be a stiff, but soft, consistency. (Easy to pipe)

5. Pipe the mixture onto a greased cookie sheet (or silicone mat), about 1.5 inch wide for each cream puff.

6. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown and let cool.  *I forgot to time it.

7. For pastry cream, place milk in saucepan and pour in sugar.

8. Add vanilla and bring mixture to a scald. *I used liquid vanilla because I didn't have the vanilla bean

9. Whisk egg yolks and cornstarch and temper in the hot milk.  *BTW I got a bit messy from this.

10. Add back to scalded milk mixture.

11. Heat over medium heat until cornstarch taste is gone and begins to boil.

12. Strain over butter and pour into shell or chill in ice bath at 40F. (This will help the cream get thick.) *I add nutella after I turned of the heat because I wasn't sure when to add it.

13. Transfer the cream to a piping bag and pipe into each puffed pastry from the middle center, at one of the nooks.  *I went from the bottom because I didn't realized that I left a hole

 

This is lemon filled                 This is Nutella filled

 

I got it pretty close but The Husband said the cream tasted like cheese.  I have no idea how that happened and I'm not asking.  Than again, his response when I ask him how my pan de sal recipe tasted, he said it tasted like bread. 

Siomai and Sotanghon Meatball Soup

Every month, myself and a few of my friends and cousins hold a book club.  This past book was Shanghai Girls by Lisa See.  I like all Lisa books which actually surprised me that the author is Caucasian.  Her writing style gets you to have the same emotions as the characters as if she has first hand knowledge.  Her research on the topics are very in-depth and all her books are based on the Chinese culture.  So I figured I'll make some siomai.  Most siomai recipes has shrimp but one of my cousins and The Daughter is allergic so I had to omit that part and use ground pork.  You could use any meat if you like but I was in the process of cleaning out my fridge and pantry.  I'm still at it but hopefully I'll get stuff made soon. 

Siomai

Ingredients

1 Lb of Ground Meat (any kind)

1 Egg

2 Carrots Shredded

4 Green Onions 

1-2 Tbs of Chicken or Beef Bouillon

1/2-1 Cup of Panko Bread Crumbs

1 Package of Wonton Wrappers (Needs to be either cut or purchase in small squares)

*I approach this as a meatball

Directions

1. 
   
   Prep the steam with water and heat at a medium heat. 
2. 
   
   I took the ground meat and placed it in a bowl and than shredded the carrots directly into the bowl.
3. 
   
   Take the green onions and slice them thin and add to the bowl.
4. 
   
   Add the bouillon, egg, and 1/2 cup of the bread crumbs. 
5. 
   
   Mix until it is well incorporated.  *you might have to add more if the mixture is too wet.
6. 
   
   Form 1 inch meatballs
7. 
   
   Place the meat balls in the center of the wonton wrappers and fold the wrapping up to cover the sides of the meatball. 
8. 
   
   Place in a steamer tray.
9. 
   
   When the water is boiling, reduce it to a medium low heat and place the tray over the boiling water.  This should cook from 10-15 minutes.  It is quite quick.
10. 
    
    Serve Warm

Unfortunately, I had more meatballs than wonton wrappers so I also made a soup out of Sotanghon and the remaining meatballs. 

 

Sotanghon and Meatballs

Ingredients

* the amount depends on how much you want to make

Water (I used about 4 or 5 cups)

Beef or Chicken Bouillon (You could buy chicken stock but I didn't have any at home)

1 Package of Sotanghon noodles or glass noodles

Directions

1. 
   
   Boil the homemade or bought beef/chicken stock.
2. 
   
   Once it is boiling, add the meatballs.
3. 
   
   Once it floats, they are cooked.  Add the sotanghon noodles.
4. 
   
   Cook until it is flexible and and serve. 

*You could add any vegetables if you like but The Daughter just likes it like this, noodles and meat. 

 

Below is my review of the book: 

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I generally love Lisa See books. I love the struggle the characters go through and especially the details the author provides. I found the characters quite frustrating. They seemed so self-focused. I wish the author went into the other characters more. Especially on their point of view. I was quite disappointed with the ending. It felt like a sequel may happen. Overall, I enjoyed the book.

View all my reviews >>

Playing with more butter cream

*This is a ube cake with a Italian lemon butter cream.

 

I meant to post this yesterday but unfortunately I got stuck writing a paper for school.  I'm not sure if I mentioned this but I'm in Graduate School.  Of course, I procrastinated to the point I had to devote most of my day (it was a work day) finishing my paper.  So anyway after my first entry about cake decorating, my friend Anna decided to take it upon herself to show me how she decorates.  BTW, she made my wedding cupcakes.  So immediately I said When and Where.  We used to work together so we know our work habits or lack of habits each of us have.  Lets just say, we laughed so much that most of our attempts at decorating had to be redone due to us messing up.  We even made roses.  Most of my came out nice until I tipped them over and smashed them.  It was pretty funny, especially when hers look like cabbages.  Maybe I'll ask her to make me a cabbage patch kid cake.  You know you remember those from childhood.  It was a great day and I actually learned something.  Granted it took about 8 hours to do so but it was worth it.  Hopefully we will get a chance to experiment with sugar art *Anna, hint hint. 

  

* it looks good right, after hours of doing the crumb coat and the rest of the frosting, I got it close.  I still needed Anna to fix part of it.  

 

 She make me use as much decorating tips as possible.

 

Look I made a rose.  I was surprised it came out.

 

These are the two I made without smashing them.  I am not the greatest at transporting

 

We used the roses we made on a cake she made. 

Marmalade Glazed Pork Chops

I been so behind on the various topics I wanted to write about.  I experiment all the time and I do make the effort to take pictures but sometimes it just drops from there.  I know it is bad but some of my experiments are not as exciting to write about or that I can't seem to find where I stored the pictures.  So I have finally cleaned up my IPOD.  I do store everything on there, it is my mini hard-drive.  Hopefully I will be getting to my older items I wanted to post.  If you see a difference in picture quality it was mainly do to my old camera going to my point-n-shoot and finally using a new camera.  Oh yeah, I finally got another camera.  I love it.  I did stick with another Canon.  I couldn't help it, I have a nice lens from my other Canon so I was stuck buying another one.  So back to the topic, I generally try to make different dinners each night.  Mainly, I experiment with the things I have in my pantry and so we won't get bored from them.  I found some pork chops in the back of the freezer and marmalade that I meant to use but never did.  *I do that alot, I have pounds of semisweet chocolate in my pantry, it is such a bad habit of mine.  If you have any suggestions in using my many, many bags I'm open to anything.  This is one of those dishes, I pulled out a random zip lock back of meat, not knowing exactly what I'm getting.  I was just hoping I was able to find something to make.  I was lucky and I found something that was edible.  

 

Ingredients

2 or 3 pork chops

Jar of Marmalade

1 Tbs of Olive Oil

 

Directions

1. I seared the pork chops to create a nice crust using the olive oil.
2. To finish up the cooking process, I put the pan into the oven at 350 degrees for about 15-20 minutes.
3. 5 minutes before the chops was about done (I used a meat thermometer to determine how well it is cook), I put a dollop of marmalade *it is up to you how much to use.
4. I continue to cook the chops until the chops were cook fully and the marmalade became a nice glaze. 

 

Pretty easy huh!  I strive for easy for dinners, I get way to impatient to wait for dinner :D

 

For sides, I just made some oven-baked potatoes and green beans covered and I mean covered in garlic powder.  I have this thing with garlic.  I love the stuff!  

 

 

 

Cake Decorating Part Deux

 

I went to get another cake decorating class with The Best Friend.  This week was a fondant class.  It was really fun.  I like how you have a little more control over the medium than frosting.  I don't have a steady enough hand to control the pipping bag as I would like.  This way, it is more shaping stuff by hand.  I apologize now for the picture.  I forgot my camera and I had to use my camera phone.  First we had to frost our cake with a crumb coat.  This is to be used a glue for the fondant.  

   

 

The cake has to be in the fridge for a about 30 minutes until it hardens.  The frosting needs to be smooth or it might ripe the fondant.  While that is happening, we had to take the fondant and start kneading it.  It goes from a glossy look to a matte look. 

 

 

One tip the teacher gave us to keep the fondant wrapped so it won't dry out.  Since fondant is so sensitive, what ever surface I used to roll out like a table or rolling pin, the properties of the material will take form in the fondant.  Like if you are working on a wooden table, there is a chance of a wooden pattern be indented into the fondant.  Next we got to die the fondant.  I only took a little of it to cover the cake.  I decided to go with a marble look.  I was trying to copy the ocean.

To get all the color incorporated, the fondant would need to be kneaded.  Lets just say, I had blue fingers for a while.  Once all the color was incorporated, than I had to roll it out.  I got used to this because of all the empanadas I would make.

We used corn starch to prevent the fondant from sticking to the surfaces.  After a while, the fondant became sticky (it is all sugar and water).  Than we took the rolled out fondant and covered the cake.  I ran my hands over the cake prior putting the fondant on top to smooth out any bumps or sharp edges from the butter cream.  Than the fondant would have to be smooth out by hand to have it contour to the cake.  The edges would be trimmed until it was to the edge of the cake

 

Than we got to decorate.  For The Daughter, I decided to make a penguin and a polar bear.  BTW, black sucks in making.  You have to use brown first than black food coloring.  My hands was covered in food die.  The Best Friend decided to make a moon and star theme.  I was so cute :D