Foodie Saturday - Cassava Cake

(photo downloaded using Photobucket.com)

Cassava Cake is one of the famous Filipino desserts that everyone surely crave when celebration comes. Nothing beats a weekend spent at home while munching up with a homemade cassava! Apart from blogging...cooking sweets is my well-loved past time. It is relatively very easy to prepare, you too can try this in your kitchen....

Ingredients:
2 packs of frozen cassava grated cassava
2 cans of coconut milk
2 1/2 cans of condensed milk
2 eggs
macapuno strips
vanilla
grated cheese

For toppings you will need to mix and blend:
1/2 condensed milk
2 egg yolks

Instructions:
Defrost first frozen cassava and mix with all other ingredients.
Line a baking pan with banana leaves or foil and pour the mixture.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes at 325 degrees Celcius.
When the top solidifies, remove from oven and put toppings including grated cheese.
Bake for another 10 minutes until golden brown.
Let it cool, cut into squares and serve.

Sweet Macaroni Salad Pinoy Style

As the heat goes up here in the Middleast, I can't help but gobble up some sweet tasting macaroni style, visayan way. There are some variations as to how to prepare this delicacy, some tried to have a combination of pineapple tidbits, sweet corn, fruit cocktail mixed in mayonnaise. And some would love it by adding boiled chicken breast without condensed milk.

Here's what you need to prepare macaroni salad with a bit of sweetness to shy away the summer heat. For more macaroni recipe try 101 Things to Do with Mac & Cheese

500 gm macaroni noodles
500 ml mayonnaise
1 bottle kaong red
1 bottle kaong green
2 can condensed milk
2 can nestle cream
1/4 cup raisins
1 med size Del Monte Fruit Cocktail
1 cup cheddar cheese

Cook macaroni noodles according to package cooking instructions.

Drain red and green kaong and fruit cocktail. Then set aside.

Combine all ingredients while adding mayonnaise, nestle cream, condensed milk, raisins and cheese.

Refrigerate, then serve.

Puto Cheese Pinoy Style - Offline Business to try

Puto or steamed rice muffins is not only popular in the Philippines but as well as abroad. Some variations are Puto Cheese, Puto maya, Puto Seko, Puto Ube, Puto Bumbong, Puto Mamon or Puto Pao. The best selling item is Puto Cheese although you could as well try Palitaw, Leche Flan,or some Candy Recipes for your offline business.

As an OFW (Overseas Filipino Worker), living your paycheck to paycheck life is tough especially if you are receiving just enough or sometimes not even enough to support your overhead expenses. Just now I felt that one should be well equipped to cope up with the hard times. Better yet, one should have a blog site to maintain (online) and a sort of offline business to try on.

While I was thinking of some unique ideas to sustain my food and transportation allowance this month, I came up with an idea of making a homemade Puto or Steamed Rice Muffins. I remembered my Tita Jane's recipe way back in Davao and gave it again a try. It's a sure hit! We used to sell this stuff as a gift to friends and relatives and sometimes as corporate gifts.

Adding different food colors to the batter like purple, yellow and green would make it attractive and easy to sell. Puto making is a good business opportunity because it is easy to make, with less capital and very affordable to the market. You can try it too.


Ingredients:
1/2 c All Purpose Flour
1/2 c Cake Flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 pcs eggyolks
3/4 c sugar (divided)
1/3 cup water
1/3 c evaporated milk
1/4 tsp vanilla
2 pcs. eggwhites
slices of quickmelt cheese

Preparation:
Sift all dry ingredients three times and set aside.

In another bowl, beat eggyolks until lemon colored, add 1/2 c sugar gradually and continue beating.

Fold in flour mixture to eggyolk mixture while alternately add water and milk. Add vanilla.

In a separate bowl, beat eggwhites until soft peak forms. Add 1/4 c sugar while beating continously until stiff and fluffy. Fold in egg batter.

Pour mixture in a Puto molder about 3/4 full and top with cheese slices.

Steam for 30 minutes. Let Cool.

For more recipes check this out:The New Filipino Cookbook (Creative Variations of Traditional Recipes), Real Filipino Recipes and Filipino Twist.(Food)(Cooking teacher Abby LaForce adds new flavors to traditional food from the Philippines)(Recipe): An article from: The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR).

Sweets, Coffee and Mmmm... Music

Sweets Saturday on rainy UAE. I can’t help but just stayed at home and tried to contain myself with sweet moments…

Do you like sweets? Do you know that Christmas and Sweets go together like Santa and reindeer? That is why even if its raining outside I tried to make my own mouth watering candies .

So irresistible yema balls, sugarcoated nuts and squash pastillas. I like them apart from the decade loved chocolates and milk bars.

Have you tried it at home? Making candies to share with family or to give as gift has become customary for any holidays. Candies add fun touch to any event. They have become an intrinsic part of many holiday celebrations. Remember the candy you used to buy growing up? Buy them now from Candy.com

One thing that goes along with sweets is coffee. brrrr. I just finished my 3rd cup of Green Mountain Coffee K-Cups while surfing the net. I love it. Candies and coffee while listening to my favorite station online...Live365 has Jazz Stations for you! Simply good combination on rainy days.

How to Make Coconut Macaroons Pinoy Style

I love this recipe. Coconut Macaroons is an all time Filipino favorite. A perfect mix of dessicated coconut, butter, eggs, milk and sugar, it gives a great tasting flavor and aroma that no one could hardly resist.

Among any other Filipino quick snack recipes like palitaw, polvoron, maja blanca, or suman, coconut macaroons is another fabulous dessert which is very easy to prepare. A must have during special occasions, this food is just right to satisfy sweet, chewy, delectable cravings the way we like it.









What you will need:
½ cup butter
¾ cup white sugar
3 eggs
200g. dessicated coconut
1 can condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla
small paper baking cups

How to prepare:

Preheat oven at 350 degrees F. Place paper baking cups on a baking sheet.

Cream butter until light and fluffy. Then add sugar and egg yolks until smooth. Mix in milk, dessicated coconut and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until fluffy. Add sugar and continue beating until stiff. Mix in the egg yolk mixture.

Drop by teaspoonful into the paper cups and bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

(Tips: use colored paper cups - great gift ideas too!)