IMBUTIDO

Imbutido is a Filipino meatloaf made of minced meats,vegies and spices. It is one of the mostly loved occasional recipes at all times.

Imbutido can be prepared ahead of time that's why I love making them because I can make it in advance. It is a big job of chopping the ingredients finely but with a food processor, it does the job well in no time therefore saving a lot of my energy. I prefer to buy lean meat and grind it with the food processor together with onion and garlic. It makes the meat well flavored before I add in other ingredients. Another advantage is you choose the meat that goes into it, rather than buying minced meat that has plenty of fat in it.

For shaping the imbutido into a log shape, you will need aluminum foil (10" x 12" per log) and sushi mat for easy rolling up.

This mixture yields 12 logs about 2.5 diameter each.

Ingredients:
3 pcs. Onions
1 whole head of garlic
½ kg. minced beef
1 kg minced pork
6 pcs. Chorizo (bilbao)
1 jar (180 g) pickles (baby gerkins)
¼ kg carrots
¼ kg green and red bell pepper
5 pcs eggs
¼ kg flour
100 g. raisins
Salt and pepper

For filling: boiled sausage or hard boiled egg (sliced into quarters)

Procedure:

Finely chop onion, garlic, chorizo, pickles, carrots, red and green peppers. In a large mixing bowl, mix the finely chopped ingredients with the minced beef and pork until well combined. Add eggs and mix well, add flour and mix further until well combined. Season with salt and pepper, add raisins and mix well.

On a flat working surface, place a sushi mat and lay aluminum foil flat on the mat. Place a portion of meat mixture about 3 inches wide leaving at least 2 inches at the end of the length of the foil for sealing the ends. Place the filling either sausage or hot dog at the center of the mixture along with its length. Roll up the sushi mat making the mixture round making sure that the foil is tight as you roll. Start sealing the ends after the first roll and continue rolling up until the end of the foil. Seal the ends by pressing and twisting the ends of the foil taking care not to make it overly tight so that foil will not break up.

Set up the steamer and steam the wrapped imbutido for 45 minutes.


To serve: slice imbutido into rings. Remove the aluminum foil and serve. It can be served warm or chilled in cold cuts.


Storing: Imbutido can be stored in the fridge for 1 week.

ICE CREAM SANDWICH

This is honestly yet another experiment. It worked but it could be improved. One good thing of homemade food is you can customize it according to your liking. For this, I opted to use low fat milk instead of full cream milk for a healthier choice.
An inspiration of this is an ice cream in a box that I had in India way back when we resided there, and it was really easy serving it in slices than scoops. That made me think one day, I will make an ice cream sandwich of my own.
I had made ice creams before in different flavors and I’m trying something different with a different way of serving it. The ice cream is served in slices like sliced bread instead of usual way of serving it by scoops. This way, it is easier to serve and you don’t have to wait for the ice cream to melt a little bit in order to scoop. So the idea is to make an ice cream in a loaf bread shape.
For this recipe, I made a separate thin layer of angel cake for the base and the top of the ice cream. I will not post the procedure of the cake here since the post is an ice cream, I may post the cake recipe some other time.
For this recipe, I did not use an ice cream maker and it turns just fine.
The verdict: It was just average, but will soon make it again improving on the flavors, H suggested adding berries in it, and if I could find real vanilla pods out of luck would be a plus! And oh, I should put more chocolate next time.

Procedure:
1. Make the ice cream. Basic Ice Cream recipe is posted in my older post. You may access it HERE. I can’t find real vanilla pods here, so I used only vanilla essence which is incomparable to the real vanilla pod. You may substitute the flavoring with any other flavor you like.

2. Assemble the sandwich:

Using a rectangular shaped container, place a cling film and press it with your fingers covering the whole area of the container and overlay extra at the sides for the top.

Place the thin layer of cake which is cut into the same size of the base of the container.

Add ice cream mixture and spread it on top of the cake.

Add another thin layer of cake on top of the ice cream mixture.

Add melted chocolates on top of the ice cream mixture. Add the remaining ice cream mixture.

With the remaining cling film that was overlaid on the sides, fold it inside ways to close the mixture in and close with the lid of the container.
Freeze for 4 hours.


Serve in slices by cutting a knife just like slicing a loaf of bread.

BONELESS BANGUS (MILKFISH) COOKED OVER A BED OF SALT

This is one unforgettable dish for me which was taught by my late brother Roy, who passed away last year. He taught me the quickest, easiest, oil free of preparing bangus (milkfish) by cooking it over a bed of salt.

Bangus is the national fish of Philippines, known for its hundreds of tiny bones. I like the fish but I hate the bones but I'm not helpless at that because there is boneless bangus available. It is done by deboning the fish manually, I have seen it being done and it looked easy, but I wouldn't dare to do it myself not unless I want to test my patience.

If I am in Phil, I could easily get deboned milkfish from the super market or in the wet market, would just pay additional P10 for deboning which they do expertly for you. In KL, I saw milkfish in supermarkets but they don't sell deboned or they won't debone it for me either, so I didn't bother to buy until my friend Tess, offered me her boneless bangus. I didn't hesitate to get a couple of packs for the weekend's lunch. The first thing that came to my mind is to prepare it like my brother had taught me. It's healthier and quicker to prepare. Another alternative way of cooking without frying.



Here's how:

Prepare the fish by marinating it with soy sauce, calamansi and crushed garlic.

In a pan over high heat, spread a lot of rock salt enough to cover the base of the pan. The salt adds heat, while preventing the fish from sticking into the pan. The fish is literally cooked by its own steam from its moisture. You can tell when its done when the fish has turned completely pale and the skin is slightly burnt.



Place the fish skin side down over a bed of salt. Cover the pan and cook on high heat for about 10-15 minutes without opening. You will hear some popping sound, but that's the way it should be.

Serve it with rice and soy sauce with calamansi or lime.

The skin should look like slightly burned like the picture below.

Peach Cheese Cake

Peach Cheese Cake

It’s not me who’s craving this, it’s DH. He was quietly lying in the couch watching movie then he called my attention and said he likes to have some cheesecake and I said; that would be for tomorrow coz it’s a little bit late and I don’t have ingredients. Then he frowned and said, no, now, like tonight.. He looked like having pregnancy cravings!!! I didn’t complain coz he made a great barbecue for lunch without my assistance, so that makes it fair enough. It was 4pm and off I went to buy ingredients.
Had I mentioned in my previous post that my mind had been playing with different cheesecake flavors? Oh, yes I did, and yesterday, I came up with Peach. In relation to my previous post which is Mango Cheesecake, I used the same recipe except that I have some minor changes. Browse that recipe HERE.
I substituted mango to canned peaches and used a light cream cheese which is 80% less fat than normal cream cheese. Indeed it is lighter than normal, still creamy but not heavy on the stomach.

Mango Cheesecake

Mango Cheesecake

This mango cheesecake is so yummy that I can’t pass to post here in my long time sleeping food blog. The ingredients are so simple and it’s darn easy to make. I’’m going to make this recipe a standard and play with other flavors by substituting mango with other fruits. Compared to cheesecakes I’ve done before, this is lighter and less creamy but the right combination of acidity and creaminess makes a mild contrasting flavor, yet it still blends in your palate. I’ll make it simple here because I am following a Chinese cookbook that is quite complicated for first timers. I think the author assumes that the reader of his book had experience of making cheesecakes. If you follow the cookbook exactly, you’re likely to get lost in the middle and fail.

First of all, basic technique for cheese cakes is to use the ingredients at room temperature, as I am in Asia, my kitchen’s temperature would mean around 20 – 30 degrees C to avoid confusion on the term “room temperature”. It is important to make sure that the cream cheese, whipping cream, eggs and mango are at room temperature. The purpose of which is to have a fluffy, smooth and homogenous mixture as we are dealing with acid and cream which usually separates when mixed cold. I have failed my cheesecake before I knew it.
Ingredients:
Digestive biscuit (for cake base)
500 g. cream cheese
120 g. sugar
30 g. corn flour
1 Tbsp. Lemon juice
1 lemon zest, grated
150 g. mango, sliced
3 eggs
150 g. whipping cream
Mango slices (for topping)

Procedure:
1. Crumble the digestive and press it onto the bottom of a greased round 20-cm baking pan and refrigerate for 15 minutes. I recommend not use spring form pan to be sure that no water can get into the mixture during baking as it will be in a water bath.

2. Using an electric beater, beat cream cheese until light and smooth, add sugar and cornflour.

3. In a blender, blend lemon juice, lemon zest and mango until well blended.

4. Add the mango mixture to the cream mixture. Beat until well combined.

5. Add eggs one at a time while beating until smooth. Add whipping cream until well combined.

6. Pour the mixture onto prepared biscuit base. Cover and seal the top with foil.

7. Place the baking pan in a larger baking pan with hot water, assembling a water bath. Bake in a water bath at 160 degrees C. for 60-70 minutes.

8. Remove the cake from the oven and refrigerate. To remove the cake from the tin, trace the sides with a knife or spatula. Submerge the bottom of the pan in hot water for about 2 minutes. Prepare a plate lined with cling film and place it on top of the tin, flip at once, now transfer it to a cake tray by flipping over so that the case base is at the bottom.

9. Arrange mango slices on top of the cake. Chill and serve.

Handy tips: Do not open the oven every now and then to check. To tell when the cake is done, shake a little bit and if the mixture is not moving, meaning it has completely set. It’s done. Do not remove the cake right away from the oven, sudden change in temperature will cause it to crack on top, instead turn off the oven and leave it open for few minutes until it cools down.

Original source: Fantastic Cheesecakes by Alex Goh