Champorado

Tsampurado / Champorado (Spanish: champurrado) is a sweet chocolate rice porridge in Philippine cuisine. It is traditionally made by boiling sticky rice with cocoa powder, giving it a distinctly brown color and usually with milk and sugar to make it taste sweeter. However, dry champurado mixes are prepared by just adding boiling water. It can be served hot or cold and with milk and sugar to taste. It is served usually at breakfast and sometimes together with salty dried fish locally known as tuyo.

The pudding becomes very thick and the lighter milk helps to "loosen" it. It's almost like eating "chocolate oatmeal". It can be eaten as a snack or dessert as well.

I specifically know this recipe being served by my mom during rainy season. A warm treat for a cold wet weather.

Photos by SDeluz

Ingredients:

1 cup glutinous rice

6 cups water

1/4 cup cacao

1/2 cup sugar

evaporated milk 

Procedure:

1. Clean glutinous rice. Boil rice with 3 cups water. Occasionally stir to prevent rice from sticking in the pan.

2. Add 1/2 cup water at a time until rice is done. Rice is done when it is transparent. 

3. Add cacao and sugar last.

4. Serve warm with evaporated milk. 

Spinach Filled Croissant

Photos by SDeluz

The cartoon character Popeye the Sailor Man is portrayed as having a strong affinity for spinach, becoming physically stronger after consuming it. A frequently circulated story claims that this portrayal was based on faulty calculations of the iron content. In the story, German scientist E. von Wolf misplaced a decimal point in an 1870 measurement of spinach's iron content, leading to an iron value 10 times higher than it should have been. This faulty measurement was not noticed until the 1930s.

Spinach, along with Brussels sprouts and other green vegetables, is often portrayed in children's shows to be undesirable. So here are some ways of incorporating spinach in your meal without your kids throwing a tantrum about it.

Ingredients:

a package of refrigerated ready-to-bake-croissant 

cream cheese (example: Milkana or Philadelphia)

package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven based on croissant packaging.

2. Drain excess water and moisture from the spinach by putting it on a colander and pressing with a spoon.

3. Mix spinach and cream cheese on a bowl.

4. Open the packaging and prepare the croissant. 

5. Get a butter knife and spread it on the croissant. Don't attempt to make a thick spread for the result will be too soggy.

6. Roll the croissant as instructed and put on a tray. Bake based on the packaging.

Ensaymada (using breadmaker)

Image via Wikipedia

The Ensaïmada is a pastry product from Majorca, Spain. It is a common cuisine eaten in most former Spanish territories in Latin Americaand the Philippines, which has been continuously made and eaten for a very long time. The first written references to the Majorcan ensaïmada date back to the 17th century. At that time, although wheat flour was mainly used for making bread, there is evidence that this typical pastry product was made for festivals and celebrations.

In the Philippines, a Spanish colony for over 300 years; the Majorcan ensaïmada (commonly spelled ensaymada in Tagalog and Cebuano ) has evolved over the centuries and is perhaps one the most common delicacies in that country, the ensaymada is a brioche made with butter instead of lard, and topped with grated cheese (usually aged Edam, known locally as "queso de bola") and sugar. Upscale versions of ensaymada are also topped with butter cream. It is extremely popular throughout the islands, especially during the Christmas season, when it is often, although not always, eaten with hot chocolate.

Ingredients:


(2-lb dough) - [This yielded 9 ensaymadas and 12 pcs spanish bread]
2/3 c milk
1/2 c water
1 egg
2 egg yolks
6 tbsp butter
1-1/2 tsp salt
4-1/2 c bread flour
1/2 c sugar
1-1/2 tsp BM yeast
Procedure:

1. Add ingredients to bread machine pan in the order suggested by manufacturer. Set in dough cycle.


2. Once done, punch dough, lay on the table and roll with a rolling pin to make it flat. (NOTE: To keep the surface of dough from drying up, cover with plastic while you work on the ropes.)


3. Using dough cutter, make long ropes (about a foot long) about 3/4 of an inch wide, and coil.


4. Apply melted butter on coils and let rise for 10-15 minutes (or up to 30 if you want them really fluffy) in a draft-free moist enough area (I like putting them in oven with a bowl of hot water).


5. You may apply egg glaze prior to baking (if you want it darker brown upon baking).


6. Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes (depending on your oven).


7. You may apply melted butter as soon as they get out of the oven. Helps keep them soft by preventing too much moisture loss. Then apply softened butter and roll in sugar when ready to consume.

I for one haven't done this recipe with a breadmaker. I do plan to invest in my own breadmaker one of these days, but not yet. I have made the dough myself and you will see the recipe in the other Ensaymada post. Based on my friend, she used this recipe and the result is much more softer version as compared to doing the dough by yourself. What I do know is that nothing beats the smell of oven fresh bread in the morning. 


Again, thank you Shirley C-R for this recipe. If you want your recipe to be featured, then share it to us. After all, we all learn new things by experimenting.

Spinach Pinwheels

     Spinach has a high nutritional value and is extremely rich in antioxidants, especially when fresh, steamed, or quickly boiled. It is a rich source of vitamin A (and especially high in lutein), vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin K, magnesium, manganese, folate, betaine, iron, vitamin B₂, calcium, potassium, vitamin B₆, folic acid, copper, protein, phosphorus, zinc, niacin, selenium and omega-3 fatty acids. Recently,opioid peptides called rubiscolins have also been found in spinach.

Photos by SDeluz

Ingredients:

• 2 (8 ounce) packages refrigerated crescent rolls
• 1 (7 ounce) package garlic herb cheese spread
• 1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. Split crescent dough in half along center perforation. Flatten one rectangle, sealing perforations. Spread with 1/4 of the cheese spread and sprinkle with spinach. Starting with long side, roll dough up, rolling back and forth several times to seal edges. Cut into 3/4 inch slices (about 15 slices per roll). Arrange the slices one inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Continue making the crescent roll ups until all of the ingredients are used.
3. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until lightly browned. Serve immediately or keep warm on a warming tray.

     This is an easy snack to prepare when you have guests over. Just prepare the spinach - cream cheese spread and put it in a deep freezer. Defrost when needed. Keep a stock of packaged crescent rolls in the fridge. Enjoy!

Puto

     Puto is Philippine steamed rice cake prepared practically all over the country and eaten alone, with butter or butter substitute and/or grated fresh coconut or as accompaniment to a number of savory dishes for breakfast (most notably, with dinuguan).

     Properly prepared puto is fluffy, light, soft, chewy, moist, has fine uniform grain and imparts the slightly yeasty aroma of fermented rice batter overladen with a light whiff of anise seeds. It should be neither sticky nor dry and crumbly. The essential flavor should be of freshly cooked rice, sweetened a bit more if being eaten as stand-alone snack instead of as accompaniment to certain savory dishes. Since most puto as cooked in the Tagalog speaking regions of the Philippines may contain a tiny quantity of wood ash lye and from time to time may be steamed and served on sheets of banana fronds, it is not rare at all for puto aficionados to seek also the subtle flavors of these two last elements in well-made traditional puto.

Photos by SDeluz

Ingredients:

3 cups flour

2 cups white refined sugar

3 tbsp. baking powder

3 cups water

2 medium sized egg

cheese /salted eggs

Procedure:

1. Prepare steamer til water boils.

2. Combine all dry ingredients and sift three times (3x).

3. Add water and eggs. Mix on medium speed.

4. Put on mini cups for steaming. Add sliced cheese and salted egg on top.

5. Steam for 10-15 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean..  

Best Moist Chocolate Cake

     Chocolate cake is basically made with chocolate, it can be made with other ingredients, as well. The history of chocolate cake goes back to 1764, when Dr. James Baker discovered how to make chocolate by grinding cocoa beans between two massive circular millstones.

     The Duff Company of Pittsburgh, a molasses manufacturer, introduced Devil's food chocolate cake mixes in the mid 1930s, but introduction was put on hold during World War II. Duncan Hines introduced a "Three Star Special" (so called because a white, yellow or chocolate cake could be made from the same mix) was introduced three years after cake mixes from General Mills and Duncan Hines, and took over 48 percent of the market. In 1828, Conrad Van Houten of the Netherlands developed a mechanical extraction method for extracting the fat from cacao liquor resulting in cacao butter and the partly defatted cacao, a compacted mass of solids that could be sold as it was "rock cacao" or ground into powder. The processes transformed chocolate from an exclusive luxury to an inexpensive daily snack. A process for making silkier and smoother chocolate called conching was developed in 1879 by Swiss Rodolphe and made it easier to bake with chocolate as it "amalgamates smoothly and completely with cake batters. Until 1890 to 1900, chocolate recipes were mostly for drinks.

     In the U.S., "chocolate decadence" cakes were popular in the 1980s; in the 1990s, single-serving molten chocolate cakes with liquid chocolate centers and infused chocolates with exotic flavors such as tea, curry, red pepper, passion fruit, and champagne" were popular. Chocolate lounges and artisinal chocolate makers were popular in the 2000s. Rich, flourless, all-but-flourless chocolate cakes are now standard in the modern pâtisserie," according to The New Taste of Chocolate. 

     In Philippines, we associate Chocolate Cake with Goldilocks or Red Ribbon. Both a leading cake company. Cakes are often the center of any festivities, chocolate flavored being the kids favorite. Here is my version that my food tasters here say is comparable to that of Goldilocks.

Photos by SDeluz

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter 

1 cup white sugar (refined)

2 eggs

3/4 tsp. vanilla extract

3/4 cup milk

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

3 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder

3/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Procedure:

1. Pre heat oven to 350°F (176°C)

2. Grease 9x13 pan. (I prefer using silicon pans so there's no need for greasing).

3. In a mixing bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

4. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

5. Beat in eggs one at a time. Stir in vanilla.

6. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the milk, mixing until incorporated.

7. Pour batter into prepared pan.

8. Bake for 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

9. OPTIONAL: Leave to cool before cutting the cake in the middle to make layers. Spread chocolate frosting on the middle layer and top. Garnish with desired decor (nuts, fruits, etc.)