Leche Flan

A friend asked me for a good leche flan recipe which she wanted to try for New Year's Eve. Since I stayed in my parent's home for the New Year I had no internet access. Here is a recipe which I learned way back in the 80's with my own tweaks and adjustments. So far this is my most luscious and creamy leche flan recipe. The 9 whole eggs works just fine just let the mixture go through a sieve 3 or 4 times. There are sieves that you can purchase in most baking or specialty stores, no need for the katsa or old flour katsa bags of the old times.

LECHE FLAN

Yield : 4 oval shaped llaneras

Ingredients :

20 eggyolks* (or 9 whole eggs or 10 eggyolks & 5 eggwhites)

2 tall cans evaporated milk or 1 cup

1 big can condensed milk or 1 cup

1 ½ tsp vanilla or lime rind

1 ¼ cup sugar (adjust to 1 cup if using 1 can condensed milk)

Syrup:

1 cup white sugar

1 cup water

1 tsp vanilla

Procedure:

Mix everything in a container, strain 3x if adding eggwhites, once only if using all egg yolks. Caramelize sugar, add water and vanilla; cook until thick then pour into baking pans, let cool. Then pour mixture of leche flan, bake at 275* or 300* for more than an hour on top of a banyo maria or a deep dish with water. If making 2 thick leche flans bake for 2 hours, checking for doneness constantly.

* add 2 eggwhites for body during parties

After Christmas Meal

It’s always a pleasure to take a break from all that rich heavy Christmas gastronomic excesses. Today I decided to serve my boys Fried Tilapia ala Pobre. Since this is a rather simple dish I always make it a point to style the fried tilapia by putting some slices of red tomatoes. I also put a cup of rice with some tomato slices to be served with bagoong that will simply partner well with the Tilapia.

To make the dish a bit more extraordinary, top with roasted garlic chips (please see the recipe for this in an older post).

FRIED TILAPIA ala POBRE

Ingredients:

1 kilo fried tilapia, cleaned and scaled

1 ½ teaspoon rock salt

¾ teaspoon ground black pepper

cooking oil for frying

2 Tbsp roasted garlic chips

Tomato slices

Procedure:

1. Clean the tilapia by shaking off the slimy liquid that comes from the mouth of the fish. Wash then put salt and ground black pepper.
2. Deep fry in hot cooking oil. Remove excess oil.
3. Top with roasted garlic chips and serve with tomato slices

A Christmas Spread

Here are the other dishes served during our family Christmas lunch. My brother’s yaya of so many years never fails to bring an array of the most luscious suman and kakanin from their home in Cabalantian, Pampanga. Note that we have two types of freshly made suman, the Suman sa Lihiya or Sumang Kambal in Tagalog otherwise known as Sumang Bulagta in Pampango and the Suman sa Dahon or Sumang Bulong in Pampango.

We also had an authentic Chinese ham that was not too salty. My sister bought 6 kilos of fresh sugpo which I cooked halabos style. Sharing with you the recipe for the Halabos na Sugpo here. To make the Halabos a little extraordinary I made a sauce out of the marinade the sugpo were cooked in…

HALABOS NA SUGPO

Ingredients:

1 kilo Sugpo

¼ block of butter

1 Tbsp cooking oil

10 garlic cloves, chopped finely

1 cup 7 Up

1 ½ tsp salt

½ tsp ground pepper

1 tsp cornstarch

Procedure:

1.Clean and trim sugpo legs. Cut the sharp point of the carapace. Wash the sugpo. Put salt and pepper and add 1 cup of 7 Up. Marinate for about 30 minutes.

2. Saute garlic in butter and oil. Do not brown.

3. Next add the marinated sugpo. When these turn pink remove. Pour the marinade, boil and let cook until reduced into half. Add about a teaspoon of cornstarch to thicken and use this as a sauce for the Halabos na Sugpo.

My Father's Favorite Christmas Dish

Our Christmas spread is never complete without my father's favorite Christmas dish, NILAGANG BABOY, BAKA AT MANOK otherwise known as COCIDO. As far back as I can remember the centerpiece for our   Christmas lunch has always been this super yummy dish. Pardon the picture I've posted but as soon as I saw the succulent slab of pork liempo cooked for two hours to perfection together with a whole chicken and a big chunk of beef plus the chorizo de bilbao which adds that distinct Castillan flavor that makes it so special and the uncooked Chinese ham that turns this supposed simple boiled dish into a rich gustatory experience, I simply forgot to take a good picture of the dish whilst the chicken was still whole and the pork liempo was still untouched or the beef still whole. 

Since the recipe comes from my family, the measurements are all tantya tantya or what I call guesstimates…according to taste. You may adjust accordingly though. One day I will have to put a measurement to all the ingredients put into this dish so that anyone in our family can cook it…

NILAGANG BABOY, BAKA AT MANOK

Ingredients:

2 kilos pork liempo, about 4 whole slabs of 1/2 kilo each

1 whole chicken (about 1.2 kg)

1 kilo beef kenchi

12 pcs of El Rey Chorizo de Bilbao

¼ kilo uncooked Chinese Ham

1 whole garlic

3 red onions, quartered

8 potatoes, quartered

3 sayotes, peeled and cut into squares

1 whole cabbage, cut into 8

1 whole pechay

Procedure:

Boil together the pork liempo (pork belly), whole chicken, beef, Chorizo de Bilbao, Chinese ham, whole garlic and red onions. After approximately 1 ½ hours, check if pork and beef are really fork tender, add the potatoes and sayote and cook for another 20 minutes, lastly add the cabbage and pechay just before serving.

Marking the Next 50 Years : Heidi's Feast

We celebrated the next 50 years of our friend Heidi (she just turned 51) by gorging on all these food you can see. For our main dish, birthday girl Heidi brought this fantastic Chicken Cordon Bleu with a Creamy Cheese Sauce. I brought my ever present Pollo al Horno con Patata (please see an earlier post for the recipe) or Roasted Chicken, this time, however, I didn't stuff the chicken with the creamy mashed potatoes. Husband and wife, Tony and Jaena brought their scrumptious Chicken Asado. Notice that we had what I termed 3-Way Chicken : Cordon Bleu, Roasted and Asado.

For the symbol of long life in any birthday party, our friend May, who opened her house for this celebration, cooked her famous Pancit Pata, hmmmm sinfully delicioso. Janet brought some healthy seafood veggie lumpia which I plated for the eye to feast on. Heidi also brought thick and juicy pork barbecue.

For dessert, Janet cooked a whole pot of her luscious Ginatan. Jojo and Monet brought so many boxes of sweet and chewy cassava cake. Rusel brought grapes for us to munch on. Another friend Liz, based in the U.S. sent a Caramel Cake from Estrel's and wine to toast on. I wanted to have a lovely centerpiece so I made the Festive English Trifle (please also see an earlier post) this time using vibrant pink predominantly to match the occasion and my shirt. Now here's the recipe for my heavenly mashed potatoes:

CREAMY MASHED POTATOES

Ingredients :
1 kilo large baking potatoes, boiled and peeled
1/2 block of butter
1/2 cup all purpose cream
1/2 block of cream cheese, softened
salt and pepper to taste
finely chopped parsley

Procedure:

Mash the potatoes together with all the other ingredients. Mix thoroughly to avoid uneven saltiness. Place on a baking dish and garnish with finely chopped parsley. Bake for about 15-20 minutes.

Making a Festive English Trifle

Trifle making is getting to be a passion. For my friend Heidi's advance birthday celebration, marking her next 50 years towards a hundred...here is what I came up with. I've already given the recipe of a Festive English Trifle in an earlier post.

This time I played with other colors and used other ingredients. I added Kiwi fruits (the green one not the yellow one which is soggy and too tart), mandarin oranges and peaches. Since I couldn't find any strawberries in the supermarket, I opted to use Oreo cookies with strawberry and Regent strawberry rolls. Let the pictures guide you through the fun of making this no-bake dessert. This is a work of art and truly a labor of love....

Sundried Tomatoes and Garlic Angel Hair Pasta

I’ve been remiss in sharing again. The past days have been hectic. I want to share another pasta dish that makes use of bagoong balayan instead of anchovies, which are soooooooo expensive.

The measurement I’ve indicated here was something that I finally perfected after so many tries. There was a time I put too much bagoong balayan the pasta became unbearably salty. Once I put too much olive oil, the pasta was swimming in too much oil. I finally got this right and carved this on stone so to speak.

I urge you food enthusiasts and adventurous cooks to always write down every recipe you create, every measurement, every dash and splash…just discipline yourself to doing that. I know, it’s super cool not to measure, but the taste of a dish thus varies every time you feel sad, happy or irritable. Measuring takes out the tendency to go overboard with the salt when you feel like dumping it all because you had a bad day at work or an LQ perhaps.

When I first worked with a food company, I wasn’t used to measuring every ingredient that goes to the food I cook. I was initially taken aback by the necessity of doing that so that others may replicate it in my absence. Working with the R&D team further enhanced my discipline to measure everything. In fact, instead of using teaspoon, tablespoon or cups, we simply measure the content of these so that everything is accurate to the last minute detail. Everything must be replicable.

I'm using angel hair pasta for this dish. Angel Hair pasta is otherwise known as Cappeli d'Angelo. In the Philippines however, we might see Capellini which is Fine Hair pasta that's slightly thicker than Angel Hair. Should you not wish to use Angel Hair, you may use Capellini and the recipe will not be affected. However, when using the regular spaghetti noodles that are plentiful in the local supermarkets, you may want to adjust the measurements indicated here. You could try a half tablespoon more of bagoong balayan and also a half tablespoon more of olive oil. Since this is again trial and error, you might want to go slowly by adding just 1/4 tablespoon of bagoong balayan and likewise, 1/4 tablespoon of the olive oil. Then tell me about it...You see I tried this already and I couldn't find the recipe where I noted this. Oh well...

Now here's the recipe…

SUNDRIED TOMATOES AND GARLIC ANGEL HAIR PASTA

Ingredients:

1 package Angel Hair pasta (500g), cooked as per package directions

5 Tbsp olive oil

1 whole garlic, minced

5 Tbsp bagoong balayan (replacing anchovies)

½ cup sun dried tomatoes packed in oil, sliced 

½ cup black olives, sliced

2 sprigs fresh parsley, chopped

parmesan cheese

Procedure:

·        Sauté garlic in olive oil; do not brown garlic.

·        Add the bagoong balayan and cook until oil comes out on the sides

·        Add the sun dried tomatoes and the black olives. Reserve some for garnishing on top. Toss and mix the rest with the cooked angel hair pasta. Top with chopped fresh parsley and parmesan cheese.