Saturday, September 22, 2012

FOODOGRAPHY: Cinnamon sugar puto maya

Puto Maya is a Filipino dessert or snack fare made out of sticky rice boiled in coconut milk. Traditionally, it is best cooked in clay pot under charcoal embers.

There is a trick to cooking sticky rice. The heat must be of the right consistency. If it is too hot, the bottom portion of the rice would easily get burned. Cooking in clay pot can help manage the cooking progress and lessen burning. However, this being an experiment, the lower portion of the rice still got burnt.

To provide a twist to the traditional fare, cinnamon sugar was added. The taste and smell of cinnamon provided a sweet smelling appeal and a variation to how this dish is traditionally prepared.

Ingredients:

2 cups sticky rice
2 cups water
pinch of salt
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon

Wash sticky rice in water. Put rice in pot, add the cups of water. Stir salt. Bring to boil under low heat.

When cooked, pour in the combination sugar and cinnamon and mix. Serve hot.

This is also best paired with hot chocolate.

Life musings: "Nothing therefore can come between us and the love of Christ, even if we are troubled or worried, or being persecuted, or lacking food or clothes, or being threatened or even attachked." (Rom 8: 35-36)

Sunday, September 16, 2012

FOODOGRAPHY: Banana coconut cake


Being in the kitchen is such a stress relieving past time for me. Prior to puttering about in the teeny-weeny kitchen, something always tickles my mind that get me excited to tinker here and there to concoct a recipe.

While browsing through one of the cookbooks, this recipe for a variant of a banana cake jumped off the page. After ticking the ingredients off the list, it  was sift, pour and mix filled with anticipation if the creation would turn out a delectable.

This recipe did not disappoint.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup coconut
1 stick butter
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup self-raising flour
1/4 cup plain flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup milk
1 cup mashed bananas

Topping:

30 g butter
2 tbsp honey
1 cup coconut

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat egg one at a time. Stir in half the sifted dry ingredients, toasted coconut and combined milk and banana. Stir in the remaining half and mix until smooth.

Pour mixture into greased loaf pan. Baked over moderate heat for 30 minutes. Spread topping and bake for another 30 minutes.

For the topping, combine butter and honey in saucepan and heat until butter is melted. Stir in coconut and cook for 5 minutes.

Life musings:

Life is what we make it. We are given the ingredients to create the quality of life as we desire. It is up to us to explore and put the right mix together to create a delectable, satisfying life.

Saturday, September 8, 2012

PHOTOCRAFT: Don't throw that box, it still has valuable use

                        Photo: Lessen the garbage. Box packaging may be recycled to pack your Christmas gifts in. 

Dis-assemble box. Flip over and re-assemble. The printed side should be on the inner part of the box. Glue or tape the edges together.

A good way to prevent adding to any garbage pile is to re-use product packaging. Many items come in boxes. These boxes can still be re-used.

Christmas season is fast approaching and soon there will be a frenzy of wrapping and packing of gifts. This would be the good time to use the recycled boxes.

Dis-assemble the packing box. Flip it over and re-assemble. Make sure that the printed side is on the inner part of the box. Tape or glue the edges and the new box is good to go.

In this time and age when the climate is going crazy and resources are horridly depleting, any effort to minimize waste will help the planet tremendously.

FOODOGRAPHY: the indulgent and the healthy pasta


The versatility of pasta dishes make them one of the easiest to make in the kitchen. While it is ideal to make the pasta from scratch but store bought pasta will do just fine.

This set has a healthy and an indulgent pasta variety. This is the result of putting the imagination to work on what to do with whatever ingredients were available. There was a half pack of penne in the cupboard and some skinless longganisa (a local sausage) that must be consumed soonest. This was for the indulgent fare. Having found an unused pack of spinach fetuccine in the cupboard, this went well with the vegetable mix for the healthy recipe.

Cooking is liberating because one can explore possibilities as the imagination allows. Sure there are hits and misses but even then, the lessons gained serve as a way to improve and get better at a chosen hobby.

HEALTHY Grilled Veggie Pasta:

Ingredients:

1 pack of fetuccine
1/2 clove garlic
1 onion
eggplant sliced into thin strips
carrots sliced into thin strips
cucumber sliced
olive oil
salt & pepper to taste

Boil pasta in water with oil and salt. Boil until al dente. Drain the liquid and pour cold water then drain. Set aside.

On a grilling pan, brush a dash of oil. Arrange the sliced vegetables and grill until both sides are brown. Sprinkle a dash of salt and pepper while grilling.

Add more oil towards the end of the grilling. Pour the grilled vegetables and all the excess oil into the pasta and mix. Season to taste

INDULGENT Longganisa Pasta:

Ingredients:

half a clove of garlic (finely chopped)
1 onion (finely chopped)
10 pcs skinless longganisa
salt & pepper to taste
a dash of oil
penne pasta

Boil penne pasta in water with oil and salt. Boil until al dente. Drain the liquid and pour cold water then drain. Set aside.

In a pan, saute onion and garlic in oil. Add the longganisa (peeled from the covering) and mix. Season to taste.

Pour longganisa mix into the pasta and serve.

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WANDERLENS: Life and the sea



Me (shouting from the shore): Manong, how many kilos do you usually catch everytime you fish?
Manong: It depends. Sometimes 1 kilo. Sometimes more.
Me: How long do you stay in the water to catch the fish?
Manong: 2-3 hours.

We found this family at sea at mid-morning. Father, mother and daughter in one outrigger hoping to catch some fish to earn for the day. They were catching fish in what was once a marine sanctuary.

The process to catch fish is tedious. They start with laying out meters of net on the water. Then they paddle around again beating the water to get the fish to swim into the net.

On this day, we stood by as they pulled in the nets with hardly any fish on them. Small time fishing is always a game of chance with the number of fish and the weather.

The daughter probably skipped school or does not go to school so she can help out the parents at sea. That is a sad thing in this time and age because it will dictate the kind of future for the kid. But the kid probably was enjoying herself. Afterall, it doesn't take much to make a child happy.

I remember when I was about 6 years old, we lived near a fishing village. It was child's play when adults brought me to pick shells at low tide ('manginhas' was the term in the dialect) or catch fish at night during low tide using lighted coconut palms to illuminate the way ('manulo' in the dialect). It was child's play back then but looking back, it was a fantastic way to gain life's experience. Afterall, it is priceless memory to remember having to dig into the sand and discover shells behind the rock and stones.

Or when fishermen arrived from a night's trip at sea and people rushed to meet them to check out their catch. It was fun to tag behind someone who went from house to house carrying fish on a basket and hollering out fish for sale. And it was a glee to get a few cents for simply tagging along. It didn't take much to make this child happy.

And then when we got home, there was something good to eat from fresh fish - either hot soup (tinola), fish stew (inun-unan), fried or grilled fish. The shells picked at low tide were also made into delectable soup.

It was a joy to watch the fishing family and reminisce on happy childhood memories. Those fun days will always be priceless compared to the stresses and challenges of life as it is today.


Saturday, September 1, 2012

WANDERLENS: The empty benches


Bench possibilities. A pause for rest offering relief to tired glams. Laughing friends sharing chats. Reflective soul sitting in contemplation.

It is said that a tree trunk even if turned into something else so long as it is not burned will keep its stock of carbon dioxide.

These benches lined a sidewalk and the rustic appeal of their look was interesting enough. The wood slabs have seen better days and have survived the assault of what could have been termites. They could have easily been discarded somewhere or chopped into firewood. Yet converted into benches they exude a melancholic appeal, worn out but inviting weary feet to pause for rest.

These were found along a sidewalk in Intramuros in Manila. Intramuros is the covered city that goes back to Spanish times and have stood the test of centuries.

It is always a relief to pause after kilometers of trek and an empty bench offers much hope. A rest stop in an urban jungle.

Not polished, not smooth, not straight but put together, it gently beckons for rest and to pause.