Ensaymada donuts.....Whaaaa?!?!

Red, Yellow, Red, and Blue?

I’m know to procrastinate on multiple things in life like cleaning, deciding what to cook for dinner, and making decisions.  I try not to with any food challenge i participate.  The key word is “try” because i tend to brain storm for most of the month, debate when is a good time to get the ingredients, than loaf around until I’m motivated.  I actually got stuck with this challenge.  Ray of Work with Ray, Oggi of I Can do That, and Chef Theodore of Chef by Day, and Boyet of Reel and Grill picked a very unique twist.  A dish must contain blue, yellow, white, and red.  We had to use a natural food color which was not easy to figure out what to do.  I even made my own blue dye out of red cabbage.  I had no idea what to do with it and I don’t think anybody would appreciate a Puto (rice cake) with a hint of cabbage.   It took the the whole month to finally decide what to do.  Want to hear what i came up with?   Pianono filled with blueberries, strawberries, cool whip (sorry i had 3 tubs in the freezer and i was in need of using it) and mango.  I used my pianono recipe from a past post.  The Daughter has been bugging for a cake for a week now so why not kill two birds with one stone.  She did look for a birthday candle because she thinks every week is her birthday.  I have no idea why,  she is probably wanting stuff.

Back to Laziness

Kulinarya – Sapin Sapin

Sometimes you just have to Giggle

Canonigo–A deconstructive Braso de Mercedes

Tea Party for a Cause

Lets takeover the top 9!  Foodbuzz and Kelly Ripa is challenge each of us to have a tea party for Ovarian awareness.  For each tea party posted, Foodbuzz will donate 50 dollars to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund.  Come and visit Kelly’s Website to help support the cause. 
It took me a couple of days to figure out what I wanted to make.  I had so many ideas but I decided to do an Asian inspired tea party.  It was mainly because I had the ingredients and I had some of the dishes partially made.  I also took this opportunity to practice my croissant recipe. 

Kulinarya–Vegetarian Palabok

The lovely Erika from The Ivory Hut hosted this month’s theme.  Her choice was veggies.  I was so happy with this choice since that is all I have been craving.  My problem was trying to find something the family would eat.  Have I ever told you The Husband is extremely picky.  He loves to compare what I made to other places like Jewel (I know, it drives me crazy).  I went with dishes I knew he would eat and what I have been craving for a couple of weeks now: Fresh Lumpia and Vegetarian Palabok (yes vegetarian).  '

I’m surprised it Worked

I haven’t been good at all this last week - I have been eating out way too much.  Well let me explain first.  The Mother is in town and when any of my family is here to visit we eat, eat, and eat some more.  The Husband was whining that he gained all the weight he lost in a couple of days.  Even The Daughter looks more like her dad due to the increased size of her cheeks.  She is extra pinchy (where you want to pinch a child due to his or her chunky factor – The Husband totally made this up) lately.  I was actually hoping to hone in on my croissant process but ran out of time (I also didn’t get any of the homework done in time).  I should have know better, whenever The Mother is in town I do not get to the stuff I planned to get done but she drags me to do the stuff I should have done months ago.  So it works. 

Kulinarya Cooking Club–Tinola

I haven’t been able to post for a while.  Between 2 months of on and off of illnesses (flu, bronchitis, and the sniffles) and a few complications in with my pregnancy I  haven’t had the energy to cook or even eat.  You know what is the worse thing for a food blogger, not wanting to eat or cook.  I can’t wait until I get my appetite back.  It has been a fun winter.  On top of all of this, I also started the last set of classes for my masters program.  If it wasn’t for work, I wouldn’t have time or energy to look at a computer.  Unfortunately this means I need to slow down with my blogging. 

The Holidays are almost over

I know I totally slacked for my 12 days of Christmas.  I was doing so well until the Wednesday before Christmas.  Guess what happened, The Daughter got sick than I did.  Fun huh?  I’m technically still sick and I have been living off of salabat (ginger tea), Vicks Vapor rubs and a roll of toilet paper (we ran out of tissues in my house).  I tried to kept thinking I was going to get better….wrong.  So I dragged myself to finish the baskets and The Husband delivered them.  You know what is worse than being sick over the holidays?  Being pregnant, being sick, and not able to take any meds during the holidays.  Fun times, fun times.  By the way, Vicks on your feet during the night kinda helps relieve some of the congestions, who knew.  I am currently trying every possible home remedy I could think of.  Chicken soup, OJ, Vicks, ginger tea, and sleeping under a humidifier.  Any suggestions please send it my way. 

Sorry I didn’t mean to go one with my complaining.  So I did completely my 12 days of gifts.  I did have to remove some the things I intended to give just because I didn’t have room in the container (ok I really ran out of time…shhhh don’t tell).  I did remember one of the items I did prep a while ago for Christmas.  I stumbled on it as I was looking for my candy temp. (I tried to make caramel, totally failed).  So here is the line up of my gift for Christmas.  One is a two part gift actually.

For my 10th day of Christmas I made…..Lemon Extract. 

Ok I made it last summer but I meant for it to mature.  The actually recipe I posted here from last Spring. 

 

For my 11th day of Christmas giving, I was requested by one of my friends to make pimento cheese bread.  She kinda described it and it didn’t click until The Best Friend (Girl) reminded me of the ingredients.   I came to realized, ohhhh I had this before.  My grandmother used to make it.  This recipe is a little different in terms of I didn’t really measure.  I went by my taste and what I liked.  You might want to have more cheese than pimento peppers or instead of margarine use mayo.  Totally up to you but this is how I did this. 

Pimento Cheese

12 Oz of Sharp Cheddar (if you want a milder taste, I would go with the bola cheese or the mild cheddar)

4 Oz of Pimento Peppers diced

1 Stick of Margarine

Directions

Ok really, just put everything in a large bowl and mix until it is fully incorporated.  This should be chunky. 

You could easily jar it up and give it as gifts or use it in my next gift…….Pan de Sal stuffed with Pimento cheese. 

I know it is not the prettiest of images but I was trying to move fast so I could go back to my sedentary life on the couch. 

And Finally my 12th day of Christmas I present to you Pan de Sal stuffed with Pimento cheese

I used this filling with my Pan de Sal recipe.  I am still working on the looks of it.  For some reason, every time I stuff anything in my Pan de Sal my filling leaks when it is baked.  Why suggestions again, please pass it my way.  It is driving us (both myself and The Husband) crazy.  I did make a plain Pan de Sal instead of whole wheat so just sub the whole wheat flour for bread flour. 

This is how much dough I made.  The Daughter was just staring at it. 

 

And here is the final Product with everything I made.

 

I hope everybody has a Merry Christmas.  Happy Holidays!

It is Christmas with KCC

I had the lucky opportunity to pick the theme for this month’s Kulinarya Cooking Club.  Since this is the month of giving, I left the theme pretty open and picked any dish that you would give as a gift. 

I love baking pastries for Christmas and every year there is a new recipe I try to give to my family and friends.  This year it is pianono.  I grew up having this at a local bakery and I always thought of it as a pancake filled with custard.  I would get it every time The Mother would go to the bakery.  Unfortunately, the bakery closed and I never found it again.  Pianono was one of the recipes I looked for when I started to explore the different pastries of the Philippines.  There are multiple versions of this but I went with a basic recipe and grew from there. 

I went with a brazo de Mercedes favor for my pianono.  The cake recipe is here. 

Here is the recipe for the Filling

(I did find the recipe from somewhere but unfortunately I can’t remember where.  If this is you, please let me know so I could give you credit)

3/4 of a Can of Condensed Milk

1 Cup of Evaporated Milk

2 Tbs. of Unsalted Butter

1 Tsp. of Vanilla

5 Egg Yolk

Direction

1. Place the condensed milk and evaporated milk in a double boiler and cook until it thickens.
2. Remove the milk mixture from the heat and add the butter and vanilla.  Mix until it is well incorporated.
3. Pour part of the mixture into the egg yolks and mix well to prevent the eggs to cook (I used a my stand mixture).  Slowly add the rest of the mixture until it is well incorporated.
4. Add it back into the double boiler and mix until it thickens.  Stir occasionally to prevent burning. 
5. Once it is all thicken, let it cool.

 

I made six of them and I had to double the filling recipe.

The other posts has more pictures of the lovely cake.

Kulinarya was started by a group of Filipino foodies living in Sydney, who are passionate about the Filipino culture & its colourful cuisine.
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.

Member List

Kath – http://www.acupcakeortwo.com/
Trisha – http://sugarlace.com/
Trissa – http://trissalicious.com/
Olive – http://www.latestrecipes.net/
Caroline – http://whenadobometfeijoada.blogspot.com/
Ninette – http://bigboldbeautifulfood.blogspot.com/
Peach- http://www.thepeachkitchen.com/
Althea- http://www.busogsarap.com/
Asha – http://forkspoonnknife.blogspot.com/
Malou – http://www.skiptomalou.net/
Cherrie – http://www.sweetcherriepie.com
Acdee – http://acdee.blogspot.com/
Valerie – http://www.acanadianfoodie.com/
Sheryl – http://crispywaffle.com/
Divina – http://www.sense-serendipity.com/
Anna – http://www.anniesfoodjournal.blogspot.com/
Dahlia – http://www.energychef.blogspot.com/
Joy – http://joyjoycreativeoutlet.blogspot.com/
Maribel – http://www.foodgeek.webs.com/
Tressa
Jen – http://www.jen-at-work.blogspot.com/
Pia – http://bisayajudkaayo.blogspot.com/
Malaka – http://thegrandinternational.com.
Mimi – http://lapinchecocinera.blogspot.com
Erika – http://ivoryhut.com/
Kat – http://twitter.com/alanokat
Lala – http://thislittlepiggywenttothemarket.blogspot.com/
Selfie – http://eats.sefiebee.com/
Connie Veneracion frm http://homecookingrocks.com/
Oggi from http://oggi-icandothat.blogspot.com/
Katrina Kostik from http://lardonmyfrench.blogspot.com/
Rochelle Ryan from http://www.whydiss.blogspot.com/
Marica – http://cuppycreme.blogspot.com
Diona – http://titaflips.blogspot.com/
Rowena - http://saraplicious.blogspot.com
Theodore – http://chefbyday.wordpress.com/
Gianna – http://the-empty-fridge.blogspot.com/
Mireille – http://dirtyicecreaminyourlunchbox.blogspot.com/
Marishka – http://rishka.multiply.com/
Annapet – http://moonglowgardens.wordpress.com/
Boyet – http://reelandgrill.blogspot.com/
Adora – http://adorasbox.net

Kulinarya–Relleno, another Misadventure #11

I’m a little late with this post and actually I was debating if I was going to post this.  I wasn’t happy with the result but I figured why not.  This month was hosted by Anna from Second Helpings and  Dahlia from Energetic Chef.  I was excited when I heard the them and than it sank in to the actually task.  The only relleno I have known was bangus relleno.  Watching The Mother make that many times, I thought I could do that.  Than I realized that would require me to debone the fish.  That scares me.  I can’t even hold a whole fish.  So instead I made a eggplant relleno but I messed it up according to the Husband.  I did reference multiple recipes and I “thought” I knew the basics.  I was so wrong. 

Instead of using Japanese eggplant, I thought I could use regular egg plant.  Mistake one.

The second mistake, I didn’t cook the eggplant prior stuffing it. 

I used a ground beef mixture of ground beef, carrots, peas, potatoes, onions, and garlic (sound familiar).  I had to make empanadas this week so I just used the same filling. 

Mistake three, I made the layers too thick. 

So I stuffed it, dipped it in a egg wash, than cooked it on a skillet.  It took longer than  I thought to cook and when we finally did eat it, some parts of it was not cooked.  The egg plant was not cooked, the filling was already cooked.  Great huh? 

Mistake four  - I forgot salt and pepper. 

This is what happened when I don’t cook for a while.  Lets just say The Husband analyzed the dish and told me “what I should have done” .  So next time, he is making it. 

Here are some pitiful pictures

Btw the stuff on the bottom is egg..It turned into a omelet on the bottom. 

Kulinarya was started by a group of Filipino foodies living in Sydney, who are passionate about the Filipino culture & its colourful cuisine.
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.
The current members are:

Kath - http://www.acupcakeortwo.com/
Trisha - http://sugarlace.com/
Trissa - http://trissalicious.com/
Olive - http://www.latestrecipes.net/
Caroline - http://whenadobometfeijoada.blogspot.com/
Ninette - http://bigboldbeautifulfood.blogspot.com/
Peach- http://www.thepeachkitchen.com/
Althea- http://www.busogsarap.com/
Asha - http://forkspoonnknife.blogspot.com/
Malou - http://www.impromptudiva.com/
Cherrie - http://sweetcherriepie.blogspot.com/
Acdee - http://acdee.blogspot.com/
Valerie - http://www.acanadianfoodie.com/
Sheryl - http://crispywaffle.com/
Divina - http://www.sense-serendipity.com/
Anna - http://www.anniesfoodjournal.blogspot.com/
Dahlia - http://www.energychef.blogspot.com/
Joy - http://joyjoycreativeoutlet.blogspot.com/
Maribel - http://www.foodgeek.webs.com/
Tressa
Jen - http://www.jen-at-work.blogspot.com/
Pia - http://bisayajudkaayo.blogspot.com/
Malaka - http://thegrandinternational.com.
Mimi - http://lapinchecocinera.blogspot.com
Erika - http://ivoryhut.com/
Kat - http://twitter.com/alanokat
Lala - http://thislittlepiggywenttothemarket.blogspot.com/
Selfie - http://eats.sefiebee.com/
Connie Veneracion frm http://homecookingrocks.com/
Oggi from http://oggi-icandothat.blogspot.com/
Katrina Kostik from http://lardonmyfrench.blogspot.com/
Rochelle Ryan from http://www.whydiss.blogspot.com/
Marica - http://cuppycreme.blogspot.com
Diona - http://titaflips.blogspot.com/
Rowena - http://saraplicious.blogspot.com

Oh I did it again :(

For a good month, I planned out the menu for The Daughters Birthday.  I love having parties just because I get to experiment with new recipes.  But guess what I forgot to do yet again, take pictures.  I hate when I do that.  Luckily one of my friends Vicky did take a few pictures.  I also was able to take some pictures after the party but by than, most of the food was gone.  Errrrrr.  I tried to go with a Halloween theme but I ran out of time for a few things I had planned. 

Menu

Longoniza Sliders (Chicken and Pork)
Chicken Wings (I attempted to make Max’s style)

Orzo Salad

Meat Ball Eyeballs (Chicken)

Pizza (ok Papa John’s Pizza)

Baked Salmon

Deviled Eggs

Sans Rival Macarons

Chocolate Suman

Espasol

Homemade Marshmallows

 

My lovely cousins also brought some brownies, caramel apple cookies, and taffy apples.  And my wonderful, loving friend Anna (she did me a huge favor) made some Apple Pie Caramel Apples.  We didn’t want to share them with the kids .  You have to check out her post, it was really good.  Unfortunately, we were running around so much, we also forgot to give the little giveaways for the kids.  The important part was that The Daughter had a ball.  She refused to sleep that night. 

Here are some pics from that day. 

Longoniza sliders on Pan De Sal

Strawberry Marshmallows  - some dipped in chocolate.

Me and the Munchkin

Cinnamon sugar chips

The Costume The Daughter was suppose to wear prior her ripping it.

 

I’ll be posting some of the recipes.  This week is going to be crazy again for thanksgiving.  What are your plans for thanksgiving?

Towat’t Baboy

First off, I don’t actually eat pork or I try not to.  I grew up not being allowed to eat it, it was against my religion.  I did slowly start eating pork and since The Daughter is allergic to almost everything we are kinda limited on what we could feed her.  For the party I was catering, I was requested to make Towat’t Baboy.  Lets just say, I had no idea what it was.  I did do some research and I got the main ingredients including piggy ears.  I had The Husband handle that part.  He was my taste tester as I cooked it and he loved it.  To me, it was kinda like beef steak but maybe that was just me.  This is a dish The Husband will probably ask me to make again but we will see

 

Towat’t Baboy

2 Lbs of Pork Butt

2 Lbs of Piggy Ears (You could adjust to your preference)

3 large packages of Tofu

1 Large Onion Sliced

Whole Peppercorns to taste

Sauce * These measurements are by ratio so adjust by the amount you would like

2 parts whole heads of garlic minced

1 part vinegar to 3/4 part soy sauce (so if you had 1 cup of vinegar it would be 3/4 cup of soy sauce)

1/8 part brown sugar (I liked it a little sweeter

 

Direction

1. First start boiling the pork butt and piggy ears until the pork butt is tender.  There should still be a little bit to the pork ears.
2. Once it is done cooking, let it cook and than slice in 1 inch cubes.
3. Take the tofu and dice in 1 inch cubes and than sauté them in a large wok.
4. Once they brown, add the onion slices.
5. While that is cooking, mix together the sauce.  Just mix together all the ingredients.
6. Once the onions are tender but not too soft, add the pork pieces and pour the sauce over the whole thing.
7. Mix well to make sure everything is coated.
8. Bring the heat down to a simmer and let it sit for about 10 minutes until the sauce because thicker.
9. Serve over Rice.

 

Almost Human Again

Like the title?  It is how I feel.  I more or less took a break from everything.  I had quite a few things go on in my life at the same time and my creative block, I forced myself to take a mental break.  For the last 2 months, all I have been doing is eating junk food, watching TV, and playing with the daughter.  No experiments, no school, hardly reading any blogs, and obviously hardly any posts.  I hit the one year mark and I wasn’t sure what direction I wanted to go in.  I realized I wasn’t baking as much.  Baking was the start of my love in the kitchen.  I had to find ways to get out of my slump.  Than I got a phone call about a party someone wanted me to cater.  I jumped at the chance.  It was to be a Halloween theme and I figured, it was a challenge to make some simple dishes with a Halloween twist.  I did feel a little frazzled because the day of the party was the day before The Daughters 2nd birthday.  I did plan ahead and prepped quite a bit to make sure I didn’t feel rush.  I also had the help of The Husband.  He even delivered and setup for me while I rested up.   This was a Filipino party so I was able to make some of the dishes with a Filipino twist. 

Here was the menu:
Eyeball meatballs - Embutido Style
Witch Finger Pan de Sal
Fried "Mummy" Vegetarian Egg Rolls
Tokwat't Baboy
Orzo salad
Guacamole
Espasol

It was fun going with a theme.  Since I was not able to take pictures of the final setup, I was able to take some pictures before The Husband left for the delivery.


Mummy Egg Rolls

Witches Finger Pan de Sal

Tokat’t Baboy

Orzo Salad

Embudito meatballs
Here is the Embudito Meatball recipe
(Makes about 20)
1 Lb. of ground meat (chicken, pork, beef)
2 Carrots
1 Onion
2 Tbs Chicken/Beef Bouillon
2 Hard Boiled Eggs cut in small pieces
1/4 Lb. of Velveeta Cheese Diced in 20 cubes
Green Olives sliced (You will probably need about 6-7 of them)
Directions

1. Take the ground meat and place in a bowl. 
2. Peel the carrots and used a cheese grater to shred the carrots directly into the bowl.
3. Do the same with the onion.
4. Add the bouillon and mix together until it is well incorporated
5. Start dividing the mixture into 20 portions (it equaled about 1 oz. of meat)
6. Make a ball out of the portioned out meat, than flatten into a pancake.
7. Place a cheese cube and a egg piece in the middle.  You could add other stuff like hot dog pieces if you like.
8. Bring up the edges to make a ball. 
9. Place a olive slice on the outside to resemble an pupil.
10. Once all the meat balls are assembled, cook the meat balls.
11. I steamed mine but you could also bake it. 
12. Once the meat is full cooked, I would use a meat thermometer, it is ready to serve. 

I made a set for The Daughters birthday and I served it with sweet and sour sauce. 

Need Sleep

I apologize now for not posting but I'm completely exhausted.  After coming back from California, having The Daughters birthday party, and other reasons -  I haven't slept.  Hopefully after this weekend, I will back to my normal self (to whatever that is :D).  I do have a few new recipes, I'm just waiting for some energy to actually put it down on paper.  Hopefully I won't forget :D.

Now I must go back to work and fight to stay awake.

July's Kulinary Cooking Club - Ginataan

This month's theme was ginataan, this was hosted by Anthea and Asha.  There are so many takes on ginataan, savory and sweet.  Ginataan is any dish made of coconut milk.  With my sweet tooth, I went with a sweet dish. 

Ginataan with Bilo Bilo and Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients

1 Sweet Potato Chopped in 1/2 Inch Chunks

2-3 Plantains Bananas in 1/2 Inch Slices

Bilo Bilo (Recipe Below)

2 Cans of Coconut Milk

1 Cup of Sugar

2 Cups of Water

Tapioca (I wish we had some, but we didn't :( )

Directions

1. Create a simple syrup with sugar and water in a medium stock pot.
2. Once the simple syrup is brought to a boil, add the coconut milk.
3. When the mixture begins to boil, add the sweet potato. 
4. While the sweet potatoes are cooking, cook the tapioca by directed
5. Cook until it becomes tender and add the banana.
6. Add the bilo bilo and the tapioca. 
7. When the bilo bilo rises, it is cooked.
8. Serve.

Bilo bilo

1 box of Mochiko

Water to texture

Directions

1. Pour the mochiko into a large bowl
2. Slowly add water until it becomes a thick paste
3. Rolling into 1/2 inch balls

Kulinarya was started by a group of Filipino bloggers living in Sydney, who are passionate about the Filipino culture and its cuisines. 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 food blog and leave a comment - 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

Ninette - Big Bold Beautiful Food

Peach - The Peach Kitchen

Althea - Busog Sarap

Asha – Fork-Spoon -Knife

Malou - Skip to Malou

Cherrie – Sweet Cherrie Pie

Acdee - Confession Nook
Valerie – A Canadian Foodie

Sheryl – Crispy Waffle

Divina – Sense and Serendipity
Anna - Second Helpings
Dahlia - Energetic Chef

Dahlia - Energetic Chef

Maribel – foodgeek's diary
Tressa
Jen - Jen at Work

Pia – Inato Lang Filipino Cuisine and More

Malaka – The Grand International
Mimi – La Pinche Cocinera
Erika – The Ivory Hut

Kat – Table Talk

Siopao, Siopao, and more Siopao

So the other day my aunt called me asking if I could make her and her friends some siopao.  For those who don't know what siopao is, it is a steamed bun usually filled with a meat mixture, but I also make a vegetarian version.  The Chinese counterpart is called Bao.  This is something that I make quite often and I would do anything for my aunt, so I said yes.  This time around, I had to make 6 dozen and it normally takes me a full day (or two half days) tom make that many.  They wanted bola bola for the filling, so I started with that.  For those who don't know what that is, it is a meatball, any type of meat you like, with a piece of Chinese sausage and a slice of hard boiled egg, all covered in a sweet sauce made with soy sauce, vinegar, and brown sugar.  Unfortunately, I can't share my dough recipe with you, but I wanted to share the technique.  I'm also very excited to tell you that I actually took pictures, which I kept forgetting to do before.

How to construct a Siopao

Materials

Very strong mixer, unless you have the strength to do this by hand.  If you do, please tell me your secret :D

Filling - Any kind will work, I made Bola bola

Dough produced by the strong mixer

Wax paper or just regular paper cut in squares

Steamer - bamboo or metal. I have a metal one because the bamboo one scare me.  With my luck, it will catch on fire. 

Cooling rack, you don't want soggy bottoms :D

Procedure

 This is a whole bowl of yeast that I'm proofing.  I should have taken a picture of it next to my kitchen aid so you could judge on how much I made, but I forgot :D

I had to use this bad boy this time.  Complements of The Mother.  BTW I didn't take the picture crooked.  The table holding the mixer is a little off (The Father made it, and The Husband just shakes his head at it)

There was about 36 cups of flour in the bowl.

Take the mixed dough and divide it into little balls. Doing this allows the dough to proof, but do not let it proof too long since you need to still knead the dough.

Take one of the dough balls and roll out a little disc with a little hill in the middle.  Place your choice of filling and bring up the sides to make a little ball.

Once you bring up the sides, pinch the bottom to seal the bun and place the sealed end on the wax paper.

Prep the steam bath with lots of water and a little vinegar (the vinegar will assist in keeping the dough white).  Bring to a boil over medium heat. 

Place a tray of buns on top of the boiling water and cook for about 8-10 minutes, depending on the amount of buns and how large the steamer is.  You may need to adjust the heat and time a little to get the desired result.  It takes a lot of practice.

Once done, place on a cooking rack.  I told you I made a lot of them. 

 

It more or less looks like this except with meat balls. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of that  :D

Fresh Lumpia

Most people are familiar with lumpia shanghai which is fried egg rolls.  I actually grew up on the fresh version just because The Grandmother and Mother used to make them vegetarian.  I made them only once before but I used the store bought wrapping it is best when you use fresh wrapping.  Unluckily the wrapping is actually a crepe, I used to be able to make crepes when I was a teenager but since than I have not been successful.  For The Brother's birthday, I decided I was going to try it again.  Well, I almost wasted 1/2 the batch before I got the crepes coming out the way it should.  So I ended up making two batches to use all the filling.  The only part I messed up on was the sauce which I can't seem to remember the recipe.  I knew I should have called The Mother to verify the recipe. 

 

Fresh Lumpia

Ingredients

1 Sweet Potato

1/2 Of a Jimaca

1 Can of Chick Pea

3 Carrots

4 Cups of Bean Sprouts

1 Package of Soft Tofu

1 Can of Bamboo Shoots

1/2 a Head of Cabbage

1 Clove of Minced Garlic

1 Sliced Onion

Roman Lettuce

Salt and pepper

 

Directions

1. Julian all the vegetables. 
2. Preheat a wok with your choice of oil.  I would have use sesame oil or peanut but The Daughter is allergic.  Than saute the garlic and onions.
3. Saute the jicama, carrots, and sweet potatoes first.
4. Than add the bean sprouts, tofu, chickpeas, and bamboo shoots.  The tofu should break up and fully mix into the vegetables.
5. Add salt and pepper.
6. The filling is ready to be wrapped.

 

This is The Mother and Sisters cutting up the veggies when I was in California

Crepes

(adapted from Allrecipe)

1 Cup or All-Purpose Flour

2 Eggs

1/2 Cup of Milk

1/2 Cup or Water

1/4 Teaspoon of Salt

2 Tablespoons of Melted Butter

 

Directions

1. Add all the ingredients into a blender and mix well.
2. Take a small skillet, make sure it is well greased, and place it over a medium heat to heat the pan.
3. Pour a light layer of the mixture into the skillet while rotating the pan to make sure it forms a circle.
4. Let it cook until it starts to come away from the pan and flip it. This is where I failed for a while.  I tried to flip it too soon and I ended up using my fingers instead of a spatula. 
5. Let it cool

Assembly

1.  Take the roman lettuce and put it on the bottom 1/3 of the crepe. 
2. Add the cooked filling and start rolling. 

 

If you know a good sauce recipe, please let me know.  I can't seem to remember it :D