Craving Japanese: Onigiri

If you're an anime fan, then you must also love anime este Japanese food.  FYI, Mudrah's baby girl is a cosplayer and loves Japanese food, so Mudrah is rolling her sleeves and learning to make onigiri to satisfy the Japanese cravings of her baby. Hello baby girl!

Japanese onigiri is basically white rice (binolang kanin) wrapped in nori (seaweed).  It can be filled with anything salty to preserve it like salmon, tuna, bacon, cheese, or basically anything that goes with rice.  My personal favorite is Spam or Maling!

For this onigiri, the filling is made of bacon bits, slices of cucumber and Best Food Mayo Magic as a binder. Of course, Kewpie Mayo works great too!  To achieve best results, you have to use Japanese rice you can purchase at SM Supermarkets at a little over Php100.  The rice used here was purchased for Php118/kilo.  You also need an onigiri mold to make the job a lot easier.  The onigiri presented here had to be shaped manually, which takes time as the rice sticks to your fingers. It is also better to use molds because onigiri has to be shaped while the rice is still piping hot, otherwise, the rice will start to crumble and molding will be extra difficult.

Visit cooking cute for a step-by-step instruction on how to make onigiri.

Next recipe...okonomiyaki!!!

Singing the Kamote Song

Thoughts of kamote remind me of this song my aunts usually sing

"Eat kamote, the musical fruit

The more you eat, the more you utot (fart)"

Tsalap, tsalap ng kamote.
Tsalap, tsalap din ng feeling after you make a musical tune.
Anyway...here's sharing with you the recipe of Kamote (Sweet Potato) Fries.


KAMOTE FRIES

Ingredients:
kamote (sweet potato)
brown sugar
cooking oil

Procedure:
Slice kamote into french fry-like strips.
You can opt to roll the kamote into the brown sugar before frying or fry the camote first and then sprinkle the sugar while it is being fried, or sprinkle the sugar after the camote has been taken out of the heat.  Here, the camote was rolled into brown sugar first before deep frying to caramelize the sugar which is for us the best way to enjoy camote fries.  Best served hot.

A dash of cinnamon can be added to the brown sugar for a more sosyal feel.

Calamares using Camaron Rebosado batter from Idol sa Kusina

While doing laundry this morning, I caught Mudrah at work in the kitchen.  Tagal ko ng di nag-blog ng luto niya ano?!  Anyway, this morning....

Me:  Ano yan?

Mudrah:  Recipe ni Chef Boy Longro sa Show niya sa Channel 11.  Meron din pala siyang show doon.

Me:  Ay talaga!

Mudrah:  "Idol sa kusina" yung show and I picked this recipe up sa FB page niya!

Me:  Ano tawag sa recipe?  While sniffing the aroma of the food being deep fried.

Mudrah:  Camaron Rebusado, kaso alang shrimp eh, merong pusit...so tadaaah....Calamares!

Me: (talking to myself lang)  pwede pala yun.

Mudrah:  Pwede naman, yung batter pareho lang.

Me:  Kunan ko picture ha!  Tagal nako di nagblog ng luto mo eh. (Sabay exit para tapusin ang labada).

After 5 minutes...

Me:  Looks like Orbits donuts ano? (meron pa ba nun?  Parang ala na ako makita sa SM Southmall nun ah).

Anyway, if you want to check out the recipe, go to Idol Sa Kusina's FB page and look for Episode 64,/October 7 (Magical Camaron Rebusado)

For our Calamares here however, here's what we did:

Ingredients:
Squid cleaned with head removed, ink sacs and tentacles discarded and cut into rings.
8 g Maggi Magic Sarap
Flour
Cooking Oil for frying
Garlic Sauce for dip


Batter:
1cup All-purpose flour
2pcs Egg, beaten
1Tsp Baking powder
Iced water as needed


Procedure:
Season squid with maggi Magic Sarap and lightly coat it with flour.
Prepare batter.  Mix Flour, baking powder, egg and iced water to pancake consistency.
Dip squid in batter and carefully drop in preheated oil and fry until golden brown.
Drain excess oil.  Decorate platter with sliced cucumbers.
Serve with garlic sauce.

Lokot-Lokot

My hubby arrived from a 10 day vacation in Basilan and brought home with him Lokot-lokot or Zambo rolls, my favorite delicacy from Zamboanga.  Lokot-lokot is a Moslem delicacy by the way.  It is made from rice flour and how it is made is still unknown to me to this date.  I personally love to see how lokot-lokot is made but I can't find anyone who knows how to make it yet.

The La Delicacia de Zamboanga Zambo rolls I usually buy from Zambo Airport.

The new brand also found at the Zambo airport kiosk.
Manufactured by Taluksangay Muslim Delicacies.

Contents of Zamboanga's Best Lokot Lokot

Anyway, when in Zamboanga, I usually buy Zambo rolls from the airport pasalubong kiosk.  The brand I usually find is the La Delicacia de Zamboanga.  When hubby returned from his vacation, I was surprised to find a different packaging and was surprised that its contents were heavier and far more presentable.  I will definitely buy Zamboanga's Best Lokot-Lokot when in Zamboanga.

Bakwan (Pinoy Style)

Bakwan is an Indonesian recipe which is basically shrimp and beansprout fritters or croquettes.  The recipe we have here however is given a Filipino twist by adding Malunggay and pork.

Ingredients:
500 grams shrimp
1 kg togue or beansprout
1 cup malunggay
5 stems kinchay, minced
1/2 kg cornstarch
1/4 kg flour
2 tbsp atsuete
3 medium sized carrots, diced
1 tbsp iodized salt
1 L cooking oil
1/2 kilo ground pork

Procedure:

Mix shrimp, togue, malunggay, kinchay and carrots in a bowl and then set aside.

Using a separate bowl, mix flour, cornstarch, and iodized salt and pour 2 cups water of water.  Add in the color extracted from atsuete and mix until the mixture becomes sticky and smooth.  Add in the rest of the ingredients that had been set aside.

Heat enough oil in a saucepan.

Spoon ample amount of the batter and form into a ball or patty (whichever shape you want) and deep fry until brown.

Serve as is or with any sauce to your liking.  My personal preference is sweet and sour sauce.

Cavendish and Harvey Milk Candies

We got a taste of these wonderful candies packed in a cute tin can yesterday evening.  The taste is much like that of the more commonly known White Rabbit, only better because the milky goodness explodes in your mouth once you get to the filling.  

Cavendish and Harvey is made in Germany.

To the sweet donor of this Cavendish and Harvey can, thanks so much!

Tupig ng Mudrah ni Mudrah

Tupig is the Ilokano equivalent of puto bumbong for Christmas I should say.  I remember my childhood days when we would get to eat this special delicacy everytime someone from the province comes over to visit us.  There are days too when we would visit Tarlac or Camiling and come home with this delicious snack.  The smokey sweet aroma of tupig would fill the air and it would certainly signal a festive atmosphere in any family gathering.

Last Sunday, January 8 we were privileged to have Mudrah's Mudrah cook tupig for Matthew who would be bringing them back to the Netherlands as pasalubong for his mom.  Who's Matthew?  Hahaba lang ang kwento so hindi ko na sasagutin yun okay?!


Anyway, here is recipe for Tupig as per Mudrah's Mudrah:


1 kilo glutinous rice (Thai glutinous rice is preferred)
250 grams margarine
2-1/2 cup sugar(brown and white mixed)
2 shredded young coconuts
4 cups coconut milk
Banana leaves for wrapping the tupig

Procedure:
1.  Before anything else.  The fresh banana leaves have to be immersed in hot water to wilt or soften it so it would not break in the process of wrapping or rolling.

2.  Cut the wilted banana leaves to the desired size approximately 4-1/2 x 8 inches and arrange them on a plate or tray.  The size of your banana leaves can vary depending on the size you want of course.

3.  Then, melt the margarine.

4.  Mix the glutinous rice, shredded coconut, margarine, and sugar first.

5.  Slowly add in the coconut milk so as to avoid the mixture to be runny making it difficult to wrap.  The mixture has to be mixed very well.  The use of your hands in mixing would definitely be better, just be sure to wash your hands before doing so.

The tupig mixture has to appear like this, sticky and not runny.
It kinda' looks yucky here :)

6.  As soon as the mixture is ready, you can start wrapping them in banana leaves.  An ample amount of the mixture depending on the size you want can be placed and start rolling the leaves.

7.  Cook over coal on a grill covered with aluminum foil.  Cooking takes about 15 to 20 minutes.  The tupig is cooked when it turns golden brown already.  Have extra banana leaves ready in cases when the  wrapping becomes burnt.

The ice chest seen here is filled with already cooked tupig
most of which will be flown to the Netherlands.

The yummy tupig in all its glorious yumminess!!!

Halayang Ube na Green

Shhhhh!!!  My sister-in-law and I invaded Mudrah's kitchen to make some halayang ube or purple yam jam.  This is a funny experience because in our attempt to make the purple yam more violet...well, it turned green :)

Ingredients:
1 kilo purple yams
2 cans condensed milk (12 ounces)
1 can evaporated milk (14 ounces)
1 tsp vanilla (optional)
2 egg yolks
1/2 cup butter or margarine

Instructions:

1.  Boil the Ube in water until cooked.  Drain and cool.
2.  Peel and grate the ube yam, mashing can be okay too.

3.  On a big pan melt butter and add condensed milk.  Add vanilla too (optional)  Blend or mix well.  Lower the heat and add in the grated ube.  Mix continuously until the mixture becomes sticky.  Slowly add in the beaten egg yolks and evaporated milk to the mixture and mix again.  I do not suggest doing what we did as seen in the following pictures which led to our ube turning green.  Ha! Ha!

This is the purple yam mixture with the slight tinge of violet.

My sister-in-law and I wanted to know if adding blue food coloring
would make the color darker.  This is what it turned out to be - mukhang cemento. 

Then my sister-in-law decided to just make the mixture green kasi yun daw ang color ng 2012.
Ha! Ha!  I don't suggest you do what we just did but as it turns out, the jam was delicious!!!
Masarap siya, mukha lang avocado :)

6.  Pour the mixture on buttered pans or serving platters.

Our green ube ready to be served.

7.  Let cool and refrigerate before serving.

Hey!  Don't judge the ube by its color...it actually tastes great!!!