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Palitaw: Ube Coconut Rice Balls

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I’ve been reading friends status on how delicious mochi balls are. Which started my craving for some but couldn’t find any here. Take a look how Food Librarian made some mochi balls here. Yumyum!


I think mochi balls are quite similar to a favorite Kakanin called Palitaw only shaped like a ball with some filling. I had some glutinous rice flour and ube haleya and decided to make some for our merienda (snack). WhenAdoboMetFeijoada made some using Sweet Purple Potato here.





Palitaw: Ube Coconut Rice Balls 
2 cups glutinous rice flour
1 cup lukewarm water
1 cup coconut flakes
ube haleya


Before preparing rice balls, boil some water on a medium saucepan. 


Stir half cup of water on your glutinous rice flour adding a little bit more of water from the remaining half cup till dough comes together. Firm but pliable. 


Flatten a tablespoon of dough into a circle then fill with ube haleya. Gather sides and pinch to seal. Slowly roll between your palms to make a ball.


Drop a few ball in our boiling water. After a minute or two rice balls will float ladle out and roll on coconut flakes and sugar. Top with sesame seeds.





Ube Haleya
1 kilo Ube -steam and mashed   (purple yam/garadu/sweet purple potato)
1/2 cup condense milk
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1 can coconut milk
1 stick butter


Melt butter and add the rest of the ingredients and mix till you get the right jam consistency. It took me about an hour over medium heat. 

Our Little Garden

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We are a family of farmer’s. 


That is a reply I would always get whenever I ask my Lola about our family. One of the gifts that she treasured the most is plants. Lola would show off each tree we planted to guests along with some stories about us her apo’s (grandchildren). Oh how I miss her so much. 



My mama also has a green thumb, she would change plants in our little garden almost every 3 months and neighbors would admire how she managed to grow beautiful flowers. Some friends would give her a sad orchid (no flowers) and somehow after a few months she would manage to make them grow happy blooming with colorful flowers. 

And so secretly I’m hoping to have a farmer’s heart from my Papa’s side and a green thumb from my Mama. I started with a bunch of bamboo house plant which sadly only stayed with us for a year. My husband encouraged me to grow some herbs and bought me a pack of basil and chili seeds that also died; I blame Dubai summer heat and insects who ate all its leaves. Now don’t judge me just yet I am happy to say that my Sampaguita (Jasmin sambac) and Gardenia are happily growing in our little veranda.

This morning while watering my love’s, new babies greeted me.

baby chili’s

and we have a new plant too a give-away from TDM.

basil

here are my surviving plants

no name plant. gardenia. sampaguita


During summer I water my plants twice (6am and 7pm) and both basil and chili stay inside after 10am. 

a short trip to outerspace

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Went to MICC this afternoon to watch a sneak preview of Barney’s OuterSpace adventure show to be held this weekend here in Dubai. I’ve been joining competition to hopefully win us tickets and surprise little V. 


We arrived around 5 in the afternoon and the floor was packed with moms and kids waiting for every little one’s purple friend. Luckily V and I found a good spot and took our place (sitting on the floor) singing along to familiar Barney songs. After 10 minutes V started asking where Barney is now and how long does he need to wait. 20 minutes…30 minutes…still no purple dinosaur in sight. 


Some parents have been finding ways to squeeze their little one in the crowd, giving instructions (well more of shouting) to go walk till they reach the front. Which I think is just st***d! The little girl politely saying “excuse me” and looking back to her mom asking “it’s ok here?”, mom replies “Go to the front” (another mom beside me translated for us). Why would you ask your child to do that?!

Few kids won complimentary tickets to see the show. V got disappointed cause only kids seated in the front were chosen to participate. One boy cried when he lost good thing his mom won the game. 

A big thank you to MICC for the Barney show! 

FIA Recipes: Mango Japanese Cheesecake

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FIA (famished in Arabia) is a group of food bloggers, you can find links to their blogs by clicking on FIA tab. Visiting each site has become a morning ritual and it’s kinda good and bad for me – I end up hungry after each visit  and my list of recipes to try has piled up. 


With a whole lot of recipes to try it’ll be a waste if they only end up printed and not created at all. That’s why I decided to try at least 1 recipe a month from FIA.






Summer = Mangoes! We went to Sharjah Market last weekend and bought a kilo of Mangoes from India and the guy insisted that “mangoes from India are the best madam” (I beg to disagree our Philippine Mango is the best!) I didn’t argue with the guy since I don’t have any Pinoy Mango with me for us to compare. 


I love mangoes be it green or yellow. It does not matter where it came from I just love them! I eat them as nature presented them. Wash. Slice. Eat. Then I saw MyCustardPie’s post and taught I should try eating my loves differently. Blog hopping from one FIA to another suddenly made me crave for cheesecake and viola I remember reading a cheesecakeism recipe of Japanese Cheesecake.

after an overnight stay inside the fridge





The recipe calls for cream of tartar but I didn’t have any, searching the internet for substitute suggested to use baking powder or just completely omit it and beat the eggs to medium peaks. Next I googled Mango Japanese Cheesecake hoping to find one that does not use cream of tartar at all. I didn’t find any 😦 but found another recipe from The Dainty Baker and decided to adapt both recipes. 

(a)cake in the oven (b) 2nd pan in waiting (c) baked! (d) what’s left of the first cake 😦



This is my 2nd attempt in making my own cheesecake the first one was a disaster that only the trash enjoyed what I made. 




Will I ever make this again? The answer is YES! 


fluffy and yummy

Things to take note:

1) Use boiling water for bain-marie. 
2) Try using a different pan. See I use a spring form pan and it seems that some of the water from the bain-marie got inside cause when I was removing the cake from the pan water was dripping out which also made the bottom of the cake “watery”. Half of the cake fell on the sink.
3) Line pans with baking paper. I only sprayed them with Carlex.
4) Buy cream of tartar. The top part of my cheesecake shrink as it got to room temperature which I think has something to do with not using the cream.
5) Don’t let your son pour the mango glaze.



We ate the cheesecake cold and it was YUMMY! My neighbor and V’s friends liked it as well.


Recipe Source:
Cheesecakeism
The Dainty Baker

My first #BakeFestDXB

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Friday 11am with cupcake caddies on hand we headed to Wild Peeta at World Trade Center for  #BakeFestDXB organized by @theregos. 

Our kitchen was able to produce three kinds of cup cake: Lemon Meringue, Ube Haleya (Purple Yam), and Coconut Pandan. 

I was calm two weeks before the event after a few sleep it was the #BakeFestDXB week! Sleep was not my friend, I was overly excited and scared. It’s my first time to bake something to be displayed. 

Half of Wild Peeta was filled with sweet goodies from a community of bakers who blogs and tweets as well. 

Our day was filled with sweet goodness from talented bakers – cakes, cookies, truffles, cup cakes, and pies. It was not only us adults who enjoyed the day the kids too.

Little V found a new friend in Wee Scotch (Ginger’s little one). He was so proud of himself telling his dad and I that he took good care of the baby and that wee scotch was his new friend. 



I think selling our sweets was secondary, we truly had fun chatting till it was time to pack our things. Looking forward for #BakeFestDXB round 3!

Once again a big THANK YOU to Wild Peeta for hosting the event and @theregos our dahlink organizer.

how did my cupcakes sell? (my Uncle asked)
I sold handful with sad face. The flavors of the cupcakes I presented were new to the buyers, I think. Most passing by my stand asked if I had any with chocolates in them. Was partly my fault I think: I should have put samples for customers to taste. Oh well on the next bakefest. Like what I said above the experience was worth my sleepless nights. I met really wonderful people.
***

They blogged about #BakeFestDXB too.

Out in my head
StoveTop Dancing
Anja’s Food 4 Thought
I Live in a Frying Pan
FooDee
Red Panda Bakes
Spontaneous Euphoria 

Baked Lechon

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When C got his job offer to Qatar one of the question was is pork sold there? Nope it’s not. And when we all move to Dubai that question pop up once again. Yes it is available in selected stores here. 






I think one food/dish that’s included on the list of things we miss back home is Lechon (Suckling Pig). Did you know that the Philippines is #1 on Anthony Bourdain’s Hierarchy of Pork List? Imagine our hunger after watching the shows feature of our home country at 11pm. That led me to prepare our very own version of lechon away from home.


Pork belly is boiled with different spices and then baked for 3 hours to achieve that crunch that sends us back home. Little V easily proclaims this crunchy as his favorite! I can put him on the table with a cup of steamed rice, Mang Tomas Lechon sauce and the crunchy pork skin happily praising me “this is yummy mommy. V’s favorite.”

To prepare bake lechon: boil pork belly with 2 laurel leaves, 1 cinnamon stick, 1 tsp of whole black pepper, 3 star anise, 1 whole red onion, 1 head garlic, and about 3 tbsp of salt for 30 minutes to an hour. Marinate the meat on the boiled water overnight. While you preheat oven (top and bottom heat) at 220C remove belly from water and let dry for 20 minutes. Bake for an hour or two till skin is golden brown.

Bye-bye Bottle Nanan

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In four months little V will start kindergarten. We have been slowly preparing him for the big day since he turned two years old. He was potty trained and completely weaned off breastfeeding before we celebrated his 2nd birthday. It was a full dreadful drama month with V (and me) crying whenever he pleaded to breastfeed and me about to lose my patience cleaning after every pee accident. All of those is a thing of the past and V would refer to those memories as “when I was a baby.”





He’s a little boy now and it’s once again time to let go of something – toddler cup.  I would know that he’s tired and sleepy when he asks for a “bottle-nanan” this is also what he asks for upon waking up. “Nanan” by the way is breastmilk or bottle milk, it’s not a Filipino word but something we just came up with. V would wake me up at 3am and ask for a bottle nanan and some nights he would sleep without having one. 


C calls him a baby whenever he asks for one, V then replies “Daddy bottle nanan just helps V sleep” and we would always give in. Yesterday we told V it was time to say bye-bye to his bottle and be a big boy drinking milk in a cup like how Mum and Dad enjoys coffee. Last night he finished 2 big cup of milk before going to bed and slept through the night….ohhh bliss!


While preparing breakfast V cried in his sleep.
“Mommy I want bottle nanan please. Please mommy bottle nanan.” 
“I will carry you and we can drink milk in the cup.” 
“No mommy I want my bottle nanan” – he went back to dreamland


After an hour V once again crying went out of the bedroom asking for his nanan. I have to be firm and I’m the boss! “Look love mommy is cooking nuggets for breakfast and we have warm water for your milk. Will make you one chocolate milk in a big boys cup.”  Still crying I lay him on the couch he asked for his blanket and went back to sleep. 


Delivered: Bag & Shoe Cake

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I accepted a cake challenge for a friends birthday with a red and black color theme. G had a particular cake design in mind-a red shoe and red bag with some black outline on top of a carrot cake. With two weeks to prepare I searched net and found lots of help watching youtube and blog tutorials on how to carve a bag cake and shape a shoe. PinkCakeBox tutorial on high-heel shoe and ChefGRFX bag tutorial helped me to complete the cake as well as the lovely cakers over at CakeCentral. 




A week before my deadline I made some practice cake and shoe using a homemade fondant . First I had a hard time with my usual fondant recipe it just won’t hold it’s shape, after I cover the cake I see holes on the side of the bag it seem that the fondant was melting. As the deadline came closer and my warm hands and fondant wont just work together I decided to buy a ready rolled fondant and gumpaste mix at Tavola. 



Another challenge was to keep the high-heel shoe stand up, I shaped 6 shoes and as soon as the heel is attached and dried it breaks. So the night before the cake was due carefully I laid the shoe on top of the cake turn my back and brewed a cup of tea a minute after guess what?! Yes the shoe gave up on me once again. It’s 1 am and I knead my gumpaste color it red and shaped shoe #7 and #8 and whispered a prayer to fondant fairies for please let it dry. G’s party was at 7pm the sole and heel had enough time to dry I have to stick them together 4 hrs before we head out to give it some more time to dry. 


The next day in between preparing food, entertaining V and cleaning I attach the heel to the sole and let it rest hoping and wishing luck was on my side besides it was Friday the 13th. 



Slowly I lift G’s red shoe from the mat and place it beside the bag, stared at the shoe for a minute grab the camera and snap photos to have some proof that I did finish the cake as required now on to the next challenge of travelling the cake from Al Ghusais to Al Riqqa. 


I’m happy to announce that the both shoe and bag stayed on top with no signs of falling. G’s  happy reaction was priceless! Other guests loved the design as well.  

Happy Birthday Gladhies!




Next challenge will be at #BakeFestDXB – read more about it here and here


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Dubai Cake Decorating Stores:
Tavola
Mirdiff City Centre, Mirdiff
Tel: + 971 4 284 35 48


Century Plaza, Jumeirah Beach Road, Jumeirah 1, 
DubaiTel: + 971 4 344 56 24 


Cake Decorating Center
Tel: + 971 4 268 1196