Vanilla muffins

Hi everyone! Thank you for visiting my blog. This week is a carnival week and yesterday Mariella went to her school on her fairy attire.Because of that, I wanted to do something fun and girly in my blog too.

Today I made some "vanilla cupcakes in the fairyland" together with my kids. I admit that it was not easy making something in the kitchen with  the kids who like to touch,press, or turn something on and off. It can also be chaos that is why some of the moms want to bake or cook food on their own. I guess it is very important that we show  our kids the process,the meaning and the art of baking and cooking. In that way they will know how we make that certain food and they will be motivated to eat and will be more appreciative on the food that we serve on the table. We can have a messy and chaos but FUN day in the kitchen sometimes.

Ingredients:

125g butter/margarine

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

2 cups of flour

2 tsp baking powder

These 2 ingredients should be sifted together (1-2 times)

1tsp vanilla extract ( I used vanilla sugar)

1 cup of milk

All the ingredients should be in a room temperature at least 30 mins. before mixing them together.

Procedure:

Mix  butter/margarine and sugar well.

Add one egg at a time.

 Add all the dry ingredients and mix well. Add milk and vanilla  and mix for 2 minutes.

This muffin mixture is not that runny and not that dry either. But you can feel the moist on the muffins when you taste it.

You can see that the mixture is very fine, that is because we sifted the flour 3 times.

For you to know: 

 Wet/runny muffin batter/mixture will usually rise bigger and will double its  size.

The dryer your batter,the lesser it will rise.

Transfer the muffin batter into cupcake cups or form, about 1-2 tbsp each muffin form. It depends upon how big your form is.

Bake in the pre-heated oven for 15-20 mins. (170*C)

Frost your muffins with homemade frosting or ready-made frosting from the local store.

        " Put some heart on baking and the result will make your heart happy"

Crispy Pata

Crispy pata is a Filipino dish consisting of deep fried pig trotter or knuckles served with a soy-vinegar dip. It can be served as party fare or an everyday dish.

It was 3 years ago since I made my last crispy pata. I will admit that this dish takes time to make and not that healthy sense it is a deep fried food. But I think that it is alright to have this on the table as long as we are not eating deep fried food everyday.

 Last week I found some pork knuckles on sale in the local store. So, I grabbed a pack of it and decided to make a crispy pata for dinner. That was my kids' first crispy pata and they liked it specially Mariella, who obviously ate whatever I served on the table:)


Ingredients:

1 kilo pork knuckle (Pork Pata)
Water for boiling
2 tsp Salt (adjust the taste)
dashes of pepper(adjust the taste)
Laurel leaves,onion cut into two,or any other spices and veges (optional)

Boil the pork knuckle and the rest of the ingredients above for 40 mins-1 hr
or until the pork knuckle is tender.


Seasoning and frying:

Salt
Pepper
garlic powder (or 4 cloves of garlic, smashed and sliced into very small pieces)
Flour for coating (optional)
Oil for deep frying

Procedure:

Boil pork knuckles for 40 mins to 1 hour together with the first batch of ingredients listed above.


After boiling put the pork knuckle on a strainer or oven/wire rack so the water from the meat will drain. Wipe the pata with  paper towel to keep it dry. 

Season and rub  salt,pepper,garlic powder and flour (optional) on the meat. Set aside and marinate for at least 30 minutes. (overnight is best).

Heat the oil in a deep frying pan/deep fryer. Fry the pork knuckle until golden brown. Cover the  pan or fryer while frying.

Serve with Filipino salsa or soy sauce dip.

"Good food ends with good talk"   Geoffrey Neighor

Super Easy Stir Fry Prawns

This dish is for those who love prawns or shrimps. It only takes 3-5 minutes to stir fry the ingredients and I super like the crunchy prawns and the veges in this dish.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp cooking oil

2 cloves of garlic,minced

25g of ginger, smashed and sliced into cubes

10 pieces of prawns, cleaned and seasoned with salt and pepper

1 tsp of sweet soy sauce ( or substitute with an ordinary soy sauce and add 1/2 tsp of sugar)

2 tsp oyster sauce

1/4 part of green and red bell pepper, sliced into cubes

3 onion leaves,sliced

carrots,sliced into cubes (optional)

cucumber,sliced into cubes (optional)

I used carrots and cucumber because I like the crunchy veges with the prawns.

If you like it spicy just add sliced chilli.

                                

Procedure:

Heat oil in a pan. Saute garlic,onion and ginger.

Add the prawns and stir fry for 1 minute on a high heat.

Add soy sauce,oyster sauce and the rest of the ingredients. Stir fry and serve while it's hot.

Happy cooking!!

"When baking, follow directions.  When cooking, go by your own taste."  ~Laiko

Pork Nilaga (Filipino version of Pork Stew)

Nilaga (Pork Stew) is a filipino  soup dish. In making stews, meat is placed in boiling water and cooked on the heat until tender followed by the different kinds of vegetables. This is one of the favorite dishes of my family, and it feels like we are digging some treasures when this dish is served on the table. My kids has their own favorite veges so I make sure that I have it on my nilaga. To personalized this dish, you can add any favorite veges,meat and spices that you can find in your local store.

Ingredients:

4-5 cups of water or more (for boiling)

500g  pork meat,cut into cubes ( pork ribs will do, if you like)

lemon grass (as much as you like)
50g ginger, smashed and sliced
1 medium size onion, sliced
2 small egg plants,sliced ( I used aubergine or big eggplant)
2 potatoes,sliced
2 carrots,sliced
half of a brocolli,divided into pieces
3 leaves of chinese cabbage,cut into 4 pcs. for each leaf
spring onion,sliced( as much as you like)
bell pepper,sliced
yellow corn.divided into 4 pcs
salt and pepper to taste
chili, optional (if you like hot and spicy)


(all the ingredients are sliced or cut into big pieces)


Procedure:

Boil the water in a casserolle and add 1 tsp of salt ,dashes of pepper and lemon grass (adjust according to your taste) . Add the meat and boil  until it is tender (around 40 mins- 1 hr)

Add onion and ginger.

Add potatoes, carrots and aubergine (big eggplant need more cooking than the small one).Boil for 3 minutes  or until the potatoes and carrots are half cooked.

Add  the rest of the ingredients and let it boil for 3-5 minutes in a low heat. I like when the vegetables are crunchy and not over cooked. Adjust the taste of the soup by adding more salt or pepper.

Serve Nilaga with rice or french bread just like my husband used to do:)

Happy cooking!!!

Simple Binangkal

Binangkal is a bisayan snack ,we can also call it "hard roll with sesame seed" or "hard doughnut with sesame seeds" This is my first time to make this snack and it went very well. I use the simple recipe and I only used milk. Some recipes has a condensed milk on it and it has for sure a condensed milk aroma or taste than the binangkal without condensed milk. I decided to try the simple one because I am not a complicated person:)))


Ingredients:






2 1/ cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
2tbsp baking powder
3/4 cup brown sugar ( I used white sugar)
2/3 cups milk  (evaporated milk will do, I used whole cream milk)
2 tbsp oil
Sesame seeds


Oil for frying




Procedure:




Procedure:
Sift all dry ingredients and put in a bowl or kitchen machine/mixer.

Add all the wet ingredients. And mix well until it become a dough.

Form into small balls and coat each with sesame seeds and let it roll again in your hands so the sesame seeds will stick on the dough. Use more flour if the dough is too sticky.

 

Let stand for 15 minutes and deep fry until golden brown (low heat to avoid burning the binangkal)
Remove from hot oil and drain on paper towel.

Well done binangkal.

 

Custard Cake

Custard cake is our traditional dessert for the New Year. My mother used to make this cake for us especially my sister,Jasmin. We used to eat this cake  with Filipino Beef steak, it might sound weird but it was a good combination of the salty and sweet taste.

This dessert/cake is a combination of chiffon cake (first layer) and leche flan/ caramel pudding (second layer)  and it is yummmyyy!

Ingredients:

FOR THE CARAMEL SYRUP

1 cup of sugar


FOR THE CARAMEL PUDDING /LECHE FLAN

I USE THESE WHEN IM IN NORWAY

1 can of condensed milk
300 ml or 1 1/4 cup of  whole cream milk(helmelk)
300 ml or 1 1/4 cup of whip cream(kremfløte)
(mix all the ingredients above in a caserolle)

I USE THESE WHEN IM IN PHILIPPINES

1 can of condensed milk
2 cans of evaporated milk
(mix all the ingredients above in a caserolle)

6 big eggs
1 tsp of vanilla extract or vanilla powder

FOR THE  CHIFFON CAKE

This is how to make the chiffon cake.


Procedure:

FOR THE CARAMEL SYRUP

Melt the sugar in a caserolle in a low heat to avoid burning it.  And pour the syrup into 2 bread forms.

Set aside while making the caramel pudding mixture.


Boil the milk mixture and the vanilla extract/powder.

 Let it cool and lightly beat the 6 eggs. Make sure not to over beat it because it will result to unfine/rough/airy pudding texture.

Strain the egg/milk mixture to achieve a very fine leche flan /caramel pudding.
The eggwhite should be strain thoroughly too.

Pour the strained mixture into the bread/cake form which has a caramel syrup.

Set aside while making the chiffon cake.

Pour the chiffon cake batter/mixture on the top of the caramell pudding or leche flan mixture.

Put the cake forms inside the oven and pour warm water on the tray (steam bath process). Bake for 30-40 mins inside the pre-heated oven (170*C)

I use steam bath to steam the  caramel pudding and the heat on the top of the oven to bake the chiffon cake.

Here are my custard cakes!!

Let them cool  and put the cake in the fridge at least 1 hr. before serving.
To remove the cake from the pan ,run a knife on the edges and shake the pan to check if the cake is properly removed from the form.

Put a plate over the top of the cake pan. Make sure the plate is big enough for the cake and the caramel
Turn the cake pan and plate over quickly, holding the plate over the top of the cake pan. And it is ready to serve.