Archive for the ‘Cooking’ Category
Chizukeki Chichi Dango
Posted by TwiRp | Filed under Cooking, Desserts, Food, Japanese
I guess I just don’t like Dangos or something, but I decided to try to make some today. They were good, but not the best. When it comes to Japanese snacks or desserts, they don’t seem to charm my tastebuds as well as desserts from other cultures (which I will share another sometime this week). I saw this recipe on the anime blog and decided to try it. For those of you who don’t know, my specialties for desserts are usually cakes and chocolates. So I prefer things rich in flavor and calories… The ingredients looked like they’d provide flavor. After letting them cool fully, the flavor is there, just not as much as I would like. I did however find that it was good when served with toasted coconut or with a strawberry glaze on top. The ingredients and directions are on their blog post, so I’ll just share some of the photos I took.
These are all the ingredients you need. One of the changes I might make is substituting in condensed milk or coconut milk for the water. I also might try dusting with powdered sugar instead of cornstarch mainly because I have a very sweet tooth.
I’d also top it with something when I eat it. I used coconut and a strawberry glaze, but some fresh fruit might be better.
I think my main problem is I have problems with things with rice flour if it’s not a way I’m used to preparing it. This is the first time with cream cheese, which tastes a bit foreign to me. But it wasn’t as foreign as one of the things with green tea in it, but that provided a richer flavor.
Anyways, I’ll tinker with their recipe later and go more in depth then. Rachel, for the anime blog, says that it tastes better with time. I’ve been slowly testing it as time goes by and it does. I’m just not patient when it comes to food… At least I know how to use more than a microwave unlike someone else in my house :P As always, there are more pictures in the gallery.
Mochiko Bibingka
Posted by TwiRp | Filed under Asian, Cooking, Desserts, Filipino, Food
Today I made Mochiko Bibingka for the first time. I didn’t have all the ingredients the recipe I found called for, but it turned out pretty good, but I think it wound up being more like a sweet sponge cake than Bibingka. It’s relatively easy to make and only takes about an hour in total before you can eat it.
So let us begin.
Ingredients
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup butter (softened)
- 6 eggs
- 1 cup evaporated milk
- 1 cup coconut milk
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1 box (16 oz) Mochiko Rice Flour
- 2 tbsp Baking Powder
Preparation
Start by pre-heating your oven to 350°F. After mixing the batter, it should be baked quickly after (or so I’m told).
While the oven is preheating, cream the butter and sugars together. You can use either and electric mixer or whatever I started off using is called (pastry cutter?). I wimped out and switched to an electric mixer shortly after starting.
After the butter and sugar have been creamed together well, start mixing in the eggs one at a time. Mixing in the eggs one at a time supposedly keeps the mixture light and fluffy and creamy. It was fluffier than compared to the way we used to make Bibingka, but that wasn’t with Michiko rice flour. Anyways, after mixing in the eggs, mix in the rest of the ingreidients.
Once the batter has been completely mixed, pour into 2 greased 9-inch pans. Stick them in the oven and bake for 30-50 minutes, or until the top of the 
Michiko Bibingka is golden brown. Then allow to cool. If you want cheese on it, sprinkle it on prior to it cooling. If you want salted eggs or cream cheese in it, I’ve been told you can put it on when you start baking, or 1/2 - 3/4 of the way through it’s baking. I like mine with cream cheese, but I didn’t put any in this time as it’s my first time making it this way.
That’s how I made my dessert for lunch today. It was good, but more like a sponge cake than Bibingka. The other items in the photo are fake 
. The “soup” is just water with soy sauce and some seaweed and seaweed seasoning. It probably doesn’t taste good, but it’s photogenic… The tea is Snapple Peach Tea with a piece of green onion sitting on top of the mug since I didn’t want to search for a mint leaf. But it too was photogenic. Anyways, if you do try the recipe, I hope you enjoy it.
For more photos, check out the gallery.
Lumpia
Posted by TwiRp | Filed under Appetizers, Asian, Cooking, Filipino, Food
Lumpia is the Filipino version of an egg roll or spring roll. This is our version of Lumpia Shanghai (I think?). It pretty easy to make and very delicious. There are some other ingredients you can add (which I’ll comment in as I go), but the one I’m sharing today is pretty basic. This will make about 75 pieces of Lumpia depending on how big or long you make them.
Ingredients
2 Lbs Ground Beef
1 TSP Salt
1 TSP Pepper
2 Eggs
Spring Roll Wrappers (Approx: 75)
Duck Sauce or Sweet and Sour Sauce (for dipping)
Finely Chopped Vegetables
- 1 Cup Carrots
- 1 Cup Onions
- 1 Cup Celery
- 1 Cup Green Bell Pepper (Optional)
- 1 Cup Water Chestnut (Optional)
Procedure
First, get a bowl and combine all your finely chopped vegetables in it. Mix them up. The reason I mix them up is to make sure that when the Lumpia is eaten, the person gets a diverse selection of vegetables in their lumpia instead of just a clump of one vegetable. 
The next step is to take the 2 lbs of Ground Beef and add it to the bowl. Also, take 1 of the eggs and add it to the bowl (without the shell of course). Also add your salt and pepper. If you want, you can also add 3-4 table spoons of barbeque sauce or some other flavoring (we’ve used a sweet barbeque sauce, but I’ve heard of others using hoi-sin-sauce). So mix it all together very well. After you mix it all, then it’s time to wrap. Prior to wrapping, take the other egg and scramble it in a bowl. This will act as our glue. If you are uncomfortable with eggs, you can use a 1:1 mixture of Cornstarch and Water.
Allow your Spring Roll Wrappers to defrost, or you can attempt to defrost them in the microwave. We heat ours for about 15-25 seconds and they come out pretty nice. Position the wrapper so one of the corners is pointed at you. It helps to have the ruff edges towards you and the pretty edges away from you for when you have to seal the wrapper. Place a small amount (1-2 Tblsp) of the mixture on the lower half of the wrapper (in the photo, it’s a bit below the exact middle). I hope you understand what I’m trying to say next. Many people complain about how their Lumpia has a wide gap betwen the wrapper and filling. In order to prevent that, we put a our filling as a ball onto the wrapper. Grab the corner pointed at you and fold it over the meat (the crease should be where the meat starts). Then using your fingers, press down on the wrapper on the other side of the meat and slowly roll the meat back until it is a long roll with the diameter about the size of your finger.
Then fold the corners over and proceed to roll it up. Once you get to the end, dab a little bit of egg onto the closing corner ans seal it. Then repeat the process. Once you have used up all the meat and wrappers, stick them in a freezer safe container and freeze them overnight. This will help them stay closed when you cook them.
There are several different ways to cook them. Deep frying is the easiest, but you can also stove fry them.
Fill up the deep fryer with oil (vegetable, or whatever your preference is). Heat it to 350°F (ours only goes up to 350°F). Place as many frozen lumpia that will fit confortably into your deep fryer basket. Don’t pack it in as the lumpia should be fully submered in oil. Cook 6-10 minutes (it all depends on the heat of the oil). The lumpia are done when they are a dark golden brown. You can cut one open to see if the meat is fully cooked.
For stove top, fill a frying pan with oil. It should only be 1/2 in - 1 1/2 inches deep. Turn the stove onto high and allow the oil to heat up. Once the oil is heated, place a few frozen lumpia into the pan. Allow them to site on this side for about 6 minutes (or until the bottom is a dark golden brown). Then flip the lumpia to the other side and allow to cook for 6 minutes or until it is a dark golden brown. Then remove it from the frying pan. You can cut one open to see if the meat is fully cooked. I suggest using a deep fryer if you have one as that usually gives better results.
After cooking the lumpia, you can cut them in half or not if you want. Let them cool to a mouth handable temperature. Dip in duck sauce or sweet and sour sauce.
For more pictures, check out the gallery.