Months ago, I received a copy of Jamie’s Food Revolution. After looking it over — and illegitimately finding a way to watch the TV series from here in Holland (thanks, IP disguising software!), I decided that the best way to review it would be to test it out with the core audience, i.e. inexperienced cooks. Luckily, I had one of those right in my house, in the form of Kyle, my husband.

Kyle, being an all-around brilliant person, knows enough to stay out of my way in the kitchen, especially when I’m, say, on a two week pizza dough experiment binge. This survivalist attitude has unfortunately stunted his cooking skills, so he was the perfect candidate for a basic book like Food Revolution.

The philosophy behind the book is so Jamie Oliver, the real-life manifestation of Ratatouille’s Gusteau: “Anyone can cook!” Looking at the recipes I was pretty skeptical, but I’m pretty fed up with the open a can, semi-homemade style of learning to cook (curse you, Sandra Lee!) so anything that involves totally fresh ingredients is an improvement.

I always approach recipes with a skim-it-over-how-can-I -improve-this approach, or “this-does-not-sound-authentic” assumption, which is directly related to my skepticism about this book’s approach. But, as I said, I’m not the core audience here. The core audience just wants to learn when to put the chicken in the stir fry, not whether the sauce ingredients are authentically szechuan.

The format is fairly simple: the book is broken out into sections, such as pastas, stir fries, curries, roasts, veg, sweets. The front of the book is pretty genius: it gives a basic list of what tools you should have in your kitchen (I agree with all except the food processor), and best of all, a list of ingredients to keep in your pantry to always be able to do some spur-of-the-moment cooking. This is so brilliant: removing the barrier you experience when you come home from work dead-tired, don’t want to go to the store and are about to pick up the phone for takeout. But look! I can make a classic tomato pasta faster than they can deliver that horrible pizza!

This leads me to my latest rant: the general cultural attitude seems to be changing from a perspective of “anyone can cook”, to cooking as an increasingly specialised niche. Everyone has that crazy foodie friend who cures their own salumi or raises bees to make lavender-infused ice cream. (And yes, I do recognise the irony of me writing this.) It’s become this macho, Momofuku-fueled, bacon-jam-infused culture that frankly, is intimidating to the person who can’t even get past making boxed mac and cheese. This goes for ingredients too: if you constantly hear that eight dollar tomatoes and foraged chanterelles are the only way to go, you may end up sighing, start putting away the pans and call in the Chinese takeout. Remember, it’s just cooking. Baby steps.

I had Kyle pick out a recipe, shop for it (of the ingredients we did not have in the house) and follow the recipe to the letter, only asking me for clarification if he didn’t get something. He basically didn’t need to ask me for help. The stir-fries came out beautifully. (Although I had him note my one adjustment: oyster sauce. If you are searching for the secret sauce, look no further.)

I tried a recipe for Moroccan lamb and found it, not authentic by any means, but easy and with really nice fresh flavors. Again, the point of this book exactly.

From the newbie cook perspective, my only big complaints have to do with the book’s design. First, the binding is terrible. This book is really positioned to be a staple, a reference, probably sitting on the shelf right next to your stained copy of Joy of Cooking. After a few times of sitting it open on the counter and paging through it, that sucker is already falling apart. Secondly, the recipe format is fairly atrocious for beginning cooks. There is no numbering, just a single paragraph style with bullet points for the steps (in non-list format!) This made it almost impossible to follow. Design over readability– I’m sorry, totally unacceptable for something like this. Please, next edition, fix this!

I love Jamie Oliver’s philosophy: fresh and from scratch equals healthy (I thought the TV series related to this book was pretty cheesy, but at least it got people thinking about this). I find Jamie himself a little over the top, but I completely admire his sincerity on this issue, and I think he’s a voice that can create real change. This is the book I would give to the student leaving home for the first time, or that person you know who uses their oven to store cookware. They may not whip up a croquembouche, but they’ll make a killer stir-fry.

Chicken Chow Mein
adapted from Jamie’s Food Revolution
The only changes I made to this recipe was to add oyster sauce, make the water chestnuts optional, added optional baby corn, and double the ingredients to serve 4 people (I don’t agree with the book’s assessment about making stir fry in two batches, especially if you have a fairly large wok).

Ingredients
Thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger
2 cloves garlic
1 fresh red chile
2 large skinless chicken breast fillets
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 scallions
a small bunch fresh cilantro
1 bok choy (we used baby bok choy. Gai laan is also good in this)
8 ounces (250g) chow mein noodles
1 heaped teaspoon cornstarch
1 8-ounce can water chestnuts (optional)
a small handful of fresh baby corn (optional)
3 tablespoons soy sauce (I like soy superior)
3 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 small lime

Prepare your stir-fry

1. Put a large pan of water on to boil.
2. Peel and finely slice the ginger and garlic. Finely slice the chile (remove the seeds if you don’t want too much heat). Finely slice the scallions.
3. Pick the cilantro leaves and put aside, and finely chop the cilantro stalks.
4. Halve the bok choy lengthwise.
5. Slice the chicken into finger-sized strips and lightly season with salt and pepper.

Cook your stir-fry

1. Preheat a wok on high heat and once it’s very, very hot, add a good lug of peanut oil and swirl it around.
2. Stir in the chicken strips and cook for a couple of minutes, until the chicken browns slightly.
3. Add the ginger, garlic chile, cilantro stalks, and half the scallions. Stir fry for 30 seconds, keeping everything moving around the wok quickly.
4. Add your noodles and bok choy to the boiling water and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, no longer.
5. Meanwhile, add the cornstarch, water chestnuts and baby corn (if using) to the wok and give it another good shake to make sure nothing sticks to the bottom.
6. Remove from the heat and stir in the soy sauce.
7. Halve the lime, squeeze the juice of one half into the pan and mix well.
8. Stir in the noodles and bok choy, with a little of the cooking water to loosen if necessary, and mix well.
9. Have a taste and season with more soy sauce if needed.

To serve your stir-fry

1. Use tongs to lift everything into a large serving platter.
2. Spoon any juices over the top and sprinkle the rest of the scallions and cilantro leaves. Serve with lime wedges.

We’ve been having a bit of a heat wave here in NL. (Keep in mind that ‘heat wave’ here means ‘perfect weather’ anywhere else.) It was the perfect opportunity to bust out our hidden-way-back-in-the-cabinet ice shaver for some cold treats. Tonight I decided to make a Filipino classic, mais con hielo, and it’s also my entry for this month’s corn-themed Beets N Squash.

When it comes to Filipino cold desserts, halo-halo is the undisputed king. Halo-halo is basically shave ice with milk, then topped with almost anything under the tropical sun: sweet beans, pandan jelly, leche flan, ube (purple yam) jam, ube ice cream, pinipig (crispy rice), jackfruit. If it’s sweet, you’ve probably seen it on halo-halo. It’s like the Vegas of desserts.

One of many halo-halos I ate during my recent trip to the Philippines

Mais con hielo (literally meaning ‘corn with ice’) is just the opposite. It’s like halo-halo’s humble cousin. It’s the simplest summer dessert ever: sweet corn, shave ice, and whatever milk floats your boat. Some prefer fresh milk, some like evaporated milk, others like to sweeten it with some condensed milk. In the summer, we would eat this all the time at home — I mean, seriously, I loves me some halo-halo, but who has the fifty ingredients lying around to make it?

Although this dessert often makes use of canned corn, you can make it with fresh sweet corn, which has the added benefit of adding a bit of corn ‘milk’ to the mixture when you take it off the cob. (You may want to cook it just a bit in its own liquid after removing from the corn cob).

For the dairy element, I use a neutral ice cream, such as sweet cream rather than vanilla, but if vanilla is what you have, it’ll still taste great, and it also sweetens the mais con hielo so you don’t need to add sugar. I also add a splash of whole milk.

In terms of the shave ice, I think a proper ice shaver is a must. It makes the ice light and fluffy. I’ve never tried crushing it in a food processor (I don’t own a food processor large enough, so it’ll have to remain a mystery to me). If anyone out there uses something else, let me know. A bit more shave ice than the other ingredients, then equal parts corn and ice cream work beautifully, and you’ll be wondering why you haven’t been eating corn for dessert all your life.

The ice shaver at our house, courtesy of my mom

Mais con hielo
serves 4

Ingredients:
About 2 cups shave ice
A pint of vanilla or sweet cream ice cream
2-3 cobs of sweet corn (or a can of crunchy corn kernels)
Whole milk

1. If you are using fresh corn, scrape the corn kernels off the cob, also catching the liquid. Heat until warm in a saucepan. Cool in the refrigerator.
2. Assemble the mais con hielo in tall drinking glasses: a half cup of shave ice, followed by a few tablespoons of corn, a scoop of ice cream, then a few more tablespoons of corn. Pour a bit of milk over the whole thing. Crush it all together with a spoon while eating. Hopefully it’s a hot and humid day because this is the best way to enjoy it!

Links:
Gourmet Fury: Beets N Squash

For this month’s Kulinarya Cooking Club barbecue theme, I decided to tackle the mother of all Filipino chicken barbecue traditions: chicken inasal.

Inasal chicken is the traditional grilled chicken from Negros, an island in the Visayas. The place with legendary inasal is Bacolod, where chicken inasal is practically a religion. It’s so popular that it has spurred all sorts of chain restaurants, many of which I understand don’t do the ‘real chicken Bacolod’. (I’ve had it, and I have to say it tasted pretty good to me, but then again, I’ve never been to Bacolod. Oh well, next time Visayas!)

In my quest to perfect my version of inasal, I barbecued it — to the delight of my family — three weekends in a row, adjusting and changing the technique of the flavorings and marinade times. Somehow the weather seemed to disagree with me every time, raining on me twice and most recently, having me shivering — in late June, mind you — in 12 C degree weather while turning pieces of chicken for 45 minutes. Holland is definitely not Bacolod when it comes to the weather.

That said, it was well worth the effort in trying to bring a little bit of the Philippines here, despite the crap weather. The first time I prepared the chicken, I only marinated it for an hour, per Marketman’s instructions (you can find his great post on chicken inasal on his website, Market Manila. He also links to a great article about Bacolod chicken originally run in the Philippine Star.) The flavor on the skin was quite good, but I found the meat to be a bit bland. I decided to compensate the next time by brining the chicken in water, sugar and salt overnight, then marinating for the last two hours. Somehow the sugar/salt combination created really strong flavor, but overwhelmed not just the chicken, but the marinade itself.

So, it turned out, third time’s the charm. I marinated the chicken for 6 hours (the same day I was grilling), and this seemed to strike the perfect timing of flavor. I normally marinate overnight, but the vinegar is pretty strong and can overwhelm a mild meat like chicken (as well as ‘cook’ it with acid) so I think same-day marinating hits the sweet spot. The other trick that was well worth the effort was taking the lemongrass and garlic (garlic is an essential component of an inasal marinade) and pounding it, with the salt, into a paste. This extracted flavor from both, without getting the woody bits of lemongrass in the grilled chicken. (my daughter was not a fan of the lemongrass chunks in earlier versions.)

Also essential to inasal is a native vinegar (I used an Ilocos-style cane vinegar, but palm vinegar is also nice), calamansi juice, and a basting sauce with achuete. My big problem is that there seems to be absolutely nowhere I can get calamansi where I live, and I once found achuete, but can’t remember where, so that was out of the picture. I squeezed in a bit of lime in place of the calamansi (blasphemy, I know), and skipped the achuete, just adding a bit of pimenton to the butter/oil basting sauce. (I know Marketman says to use Star margarine for basting, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it).

My last tip is to use all dark meat if you can. It won’t dry out, and it tastes worlds better on the grill than chicken breasts, which seem to instantly evaporate their juices on the grill and end up tasting like marinated cotton. A whole bunch of chicken thighs and drumsticks would be perfect, especially drumsticks because they have a nice meat-to-surface-area ratio. And by the way, the skin is amazing. But how could it not be? You’ll have spent 30 minutes basting it with butter.

Chicken Inasal
serves 6-8 people

Ingredients
4 pounds (2 kg) chicken thighs and legs
3 stalks lemongrass, chopped
8 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon salt
1/4 cup native Philippine vinegar
3 tablespoons calamansi juice (or in my case, lime juice)
freshly ground black pepper

For the basting sauce:
1/4 cup (50 g) salted butter
freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon achuete oil (if you don’t have it, you can add 1 teaspoon pimenton or paprika for color)

1. Combine the lemongrass, garlic and salt in a mortar and pestle, and pound into a paste. Add the vinegar, calamansi juice and several grinds of black pepper to the paste and mix well.
2. Set the chicken pieces in a large ziploc bag and pour the marinade over them. Marinate (shifting around after a few hours) for about six hours.
3. When you are ready to grill, get the grill ready and prepare your basting sauce. Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the oils and plenty of black pepper and mix well.
4. Set the chicken on the grill over a fairly high heat, turning so they don’t burn, but brown on all sides. Set the chicken on a cooler part of the grill and baste with the butter sauce every ten minutes or so. The chicken should be cooked through after about 30 minutes. To make sure it’s cooked through, the meat should be 170 degrees F (76 C) internally when tested with an instant-read thermometer.
5. Serve with lots of rice.

Links:
Kulinarya Cooking Club
Market Manila: Inasal chicken
Article: Fowl play in “Manokan” country

My past barbeque posts:
Crispywaffle.com: Barbeque pork skewers
Crispywaffle.com: Grilled chicken with pineapple marinade

This is my first post for Kulinarya Cooking Club, a group of Filipino bloggers dedicated to sharing Filipino recipes. This month’s theme is polvoron, one of my favorite sweets.

Polvoron is powdered milk candy, so named for its crumbly texture (polvo meaning powder or dust in Spanish). In this way, it resembles the classic Spanish polvorones, which are a sandy biscuit made flavored with almonds and lard. The main ingredients for Filipino polvoron are toasted flour, powdered milk, sugar and butter.

I had this idea of incorporating vanilla bean, which complements the milky flavor. As I was toasting the flour, I then thought about one of my favorite ingredients for milk: malted milk powder. The result was addictive: like a malted vanilla shake in candy form.

I’ve learned a couple of techniques to prevent frustration while making polvoron, which is a really fragile candy. (It’ll literally crumble in your hand if you’re not careful!) After combining all the ingredients, chill it in the fridge for an hour or two. This will keep it from sticking to the polvoron mould or biscuit cutter. After shaping them, set them in the freezer. If you want to wrap them in tissue paper, or stack them in containers, this step will keep you from pulling your hair out. For me, polvoron moulds are the way to go — I haven’t tried to use a biscuit cutter. If you live somewhere where there’s a Filipino grocery, these should be relatively easy to find.

One more tip: my mom swears by Nestle KLIM for the powdered milk, so it’s the only powdered milk I will use for polvoron. Even if you don’t swear by a specific brand, do make sure you use a full-fat (definitely not non-fat) powdered milk. For the malted milk powder, I used Horlicks, which is unsweetened and has a strong malt flavor.

Vanilla malt polvoron
makes about 40 candies

Ingredients
1-1/2 cup (190g) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (60g) Horlicks malted milk powder
2 vanilla beans, split and scraped
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cup (160g) powdered milk
1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
8 ounces (200g) melted butter

1. In an medium-sized pan, toast the flour over medium-low heat, stirring constantly with a heat-proof spatula or wooden spoon. The flour will become fragrant and should become the color of sand. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.
2. Add the vanilla bean, malt powder, salt, sugar and powdered milk to the flour. Pour in the melted butter and stir until the mixture resembles wet sand. (My son calls polvoron “sand sweeties”) Set in the refrigerator for at least an hour.
3. Using a polvoron mould, shape the candy and place them in a container or baking sheet in a single layer. Freeze for several hours. I like to eat them straight from the freezer, but they can also be wrapped in tissue paper and eaten at room temperature.

This is my first entry in Beets N Squash YOU! a monthly themed recipe contest with a featured vegetable. This month it’s my favorite spring veg: asparagus.

My usual preparation for asparagus is simple: grilled or stir-fried with garlic and salt. It’s one of those vegetables that needs very little attention to taste great.

But, with Easter coming up, I thought I’d get a little more ambitious. One of my fave restaurants here in The Hague is Mochi, which unfortunately bills itself as ‘Japanese-Latin fusion’. (Anyone who knows me knows I’m a total hater on the asian fusion front.) However. The food, which of course is trendy little dishes, is delish, so I’ll forgive them for that as well as their fusion sins. The best dish there, in my opinion, is an appetizer called asperges hirado. It involves all my favorite things: Asparagus. Bacon. Panko. Deep-frying. Mayonnaise. Need I say more?

So I thought I would take a stab at it. What’s even better is that this is the easiest thing ever to make, and it looks great, so would make a pretty appetizer for guests. The key to its success is using pencil-thin asparagus and very thin-sliced bacon. If the asparagus is too thick, it won’t cook through. For the bacon, I used ‘ontbijtspek’ for this (basically a super thin breakfast bacon that is a little bit sweet). Thin pancetta, or even proscuitto would work here; just don’t use thick-sliced bacon because the deep-frying will go super quick.

At Mochi they serve this with wasabi mayonnaise. I made a milk mayonnaise with garlic, then mixed it with sweet chili sauce, two to one. A little sweet, a little spicy. Perfect for the salty crunchy asparagus bundles.

Asparagus bundles with bacon, panko and chili mayonnaise
serves 4-6 as an appetizer

Ingredients
200g thin asparagus
about 200g thinly sliced bacon
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup of panko breadcrumbs (more or less)
300-400ml sunflower oil for frying

For the chili mayonnaise
1/4 cup mayonnaise (homemade or store-bought)
2 tablespoons sweet chili sauce

1. The asparagus should be about 20cm long (8 inches or so, or less). This makes it easier to wrap in the bacon and to fry. Group the asparagus in bundles of five.
2. Wrap each bundle with one or two slices of bacon, keeping the asparagus tips exposed. Basically there should be two layers of bacon to keep the bundle together.
3. Place the egg in a shallow dish, and the panko in a separate shallow dish. Dip each bundle first in the egg, then the panko.
4. Heat the oil in a saucepan to 325 degrees F (160 C). Fry the bundles in batches, turning them with tongs as they become golden. Each bundle shouldn’t take more than 2-3 minutes.
5. Slice each bundle into two pieces. Combine the mayo and chili sauce. Serve immediately.

Recently my friend Justine posted a link to a Korean dessert called gyung-dan, which are basically little chewy cakes of rice flour, sometimes filled with sweet bean paste, and rolled in sesame seeds. Right away this made me think of palitaw, one of my favorite Filipino kakanin, or desserts. Palitaw is boiled sweet rice flour (no filling) that is then coated in sugar, toasted sesame seeds and, in the usual Filipino tropical twist, grated coconut.

This is the easiest dessert ever to make if you have the ingredients on hand. You will need sweet rice flour, such as Mochiko. Some (like my mother, of course) would argue that to make proper palitaw you really should soak sweet rice, then make it into a paste. Frankly, I will admit that with this step, I probably would never make palitaw myself, so I’ll stick to the Mochiko. She did convince me, however, of the worthwhile step of grinding the toasted sesame seeds with the sugar to “get the most sesame flavor from it”. She is right about that.

For the grated coconut, ideally you would have fresh grated coconut extracted with one of these dangerous bad boys (The way it works is you sit on the grater on a low stool, and hold the coconut and grate it with the sharp metal bit. Why do I call it dangerous? My auntie, as a child, ran into one of these, resulting in a huge bloody gash. I guess the moral of the story is don’t run in the house when there are coconut graters lying around.)

If you don’t have access to fresh coconut, check the freezer at the Asian grocery, or use desiccated (non-sweetened) coconut as I have here.

Finally, make sure to eat the palitaw right away. There’s basically no point if it isn’t piping hot; after that it gets insanely chewy and soggy. But when it’s fresh, it’s a little piece of tropical heaven.

Palitaw
serves 4

2 cups (300g) sweet rice flour (such as Mochiko)
3/4 cup (180ml) water
1 cup (90g) grated coconut
1/2 cup(100g) granulated sugar
3 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds

1. Stir the flour and water in a bowl until smooth. Form the dough into 1-inch balls and flatten slightly into patties.
2. In a food processor, combine the sesame seeds and sugar. Set aside in a shallow dish (you will roll the patties in them after they’ve been cooked. Set the grated coconut in a separate shallow dish (also for coating the patties later).
3. Bring a medium saucepan of water to a boil. Drop the palitaw into the boiling water. Cook until they float to the surface.
4. Roll them right away in the sugar-sesame mixture, then in the grated coconut. Serve immediately.

Caldereta is one of my favorite comfort foods. Traditionally, it is a Filipino beef stew with tomatoes. This is a dish you will often see at turo-turo places – otherwise known as point-point joints. At the point-point joint, you point at the steam tray that looks best to you. More accurately, the steam tray that looks least repulsive. They stir up the lukewarm mixture, breaking up the grease on top, and slop it into a Styrofoam container with a heap of rice. (Can you tell I’m not a big fan of the steam tray places?)

Let’s just say there’s a turo-turo place in the city I used to live in that continually seemed to get shut down by the health department. And that was the “okay” place. *shudder*

That said, it makes sense to make your caldereta from scratch because it is fantastic when it’s homemade. I’m not going to make any serious claims toward authenticity here. I add a bit of tamarind in the beginning for sourness, and a can of good whole tomatoes instead of some fresh ones. Oftentimes you find green beans in caldereta, but instead I add potatoes (you can’t go wrong with meat and potatoes) and stir fry crisp green beans as a side dish. As I’m frying the onions in the beginning, I also throw in a big pinch of red pepper flakes to add a little heat.

I use beef chuck for this, and instead of cutting it into cubes, I leave the pieces large (easier when you are browning it) and slow cook it long enough for the meat to fall apart. Also a secret addition: if you have a piece of bone-in oxtail, add it. It gives great flavor. And by the way, this is great in a slow cooker: a winter dinner that’s ready as soon as you get home from work. What can be better?

Caldereta
Serves 4-6 with steamed rice
UPDATE: Thanks to Allan’s comment below, I’ve added liver pate as an optional ingredient, and adjusted the tamarind paste also as an optional ingredient (as it’s not really traditionally used). Many Filipino cooks use liver pate as a thickener in this dish. I prefer it without, but feel free to try it!

Ingredients
Vegetable oil
2 pounds (1 kg) boneless beef chuck
1 medium piece of oxtail (optional)
1 15-oz (500g) can of whole tomatoes
1-1/2 cups water
1 large onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1-inch knob of ginger, grated or minced
1 tablespoon tamarind paste (use a tablespoon balsamic vinegar if you don’t have tamarind) (optional)
3 tablespoons liver pate (optional)
½ pound cubed, peeled red potatoes
1 pinch red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons salt
A small handful of cilantro, minced for garnish (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 250 F (120 C). (If you are using a slow cooker, do everything up until step 5, then add the ingredients to the slow cooker.)
2. Rinse and dry the beef and oxtail, if using. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper.
3. In a large Dutch oven, heat a tablespoon or two of vegetable oil over high heat. Brown the meat on all sides, doing this in batches to avoid crowding. Set it aside.
4. In the same Dutch oven, add a little bit more oil, and fry the onions over medium-low heat until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the tamarind, garlic, ginger and red pepper and stir for another minute. Dice the tomatoes (or, if they’re soft enough, shred them with your hands over the pot), and add them with the juice, and the liver pate, if using. Add the water, salt and pepper, and bring to a simmer.
5. Add the meat and cover. Put the Dutch oven in the oven and cook for 3-4 hours, checking it to make sure there’s enough liquid every now and then. After about 3 hours, add the potatoes and continue baking for another hour. The meat should come apart easily with a fork.
6. Serve with rice. This tastes great the next day.

Although my favorite way to eat Nutella is slathered on bread, I thought for World Nutella Day (four years old this year, I might add!) I would combine two of my favorite things: steamed pudding and Nutella.

Steamed pudding is basically a cake that is steamed rather than baked, then turned out onto a plate. What’s great is that it never gets really dry, so it’s moist and gooey, and often times light.

Usually a 4-5 quart heatproof bowl is the tool of choice for steaming the pudding in. This then needs to be set inside a larger pot that can accommodate water about halfway up the sides of the bowl.

Lucky for me, I have a steam oven (great for making siopao, by the way!), so I just set a large heatproof dish with a cover directly in the oven. For traditional steaming, the pudding bowl needs to be prepared properly. These instructions from the BBC are the best I’ve seen for preparing a steamed pudding.

This pudding is more like a souffle, and the Nutella taste is subtle in the light airy texture. To dress it up, you can prepare a little Nutella sauce, but I’m happy eating it with a spoonful of sweetened creme fraiche.

Nutella steamed pudding
serves 4-6
Recipe tip: Because Nutella actually doesn’t have a lot of chocolate (or hazelnut for that matter), the taste is really subtle when you bake with it. What I have found, however, is that if you make your own gianduja (chocolate-hazelnut mixture), you really boost the intensity of chocolatey-hazelnutty flavor. There’s a great recipe at the Cook and Eat blog. Give it a shot!

Ingredients
1 cup (240ml) Nutella
1/2 cup (120ml) heavy cream
4 tablespoons (50g) butter (plus more for greasing the bowl)
pinch of salt
6 eggs, separated: yolks in one bowl, whites in another
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/3 cup (65g) sugar
1/4 cup (35g) flour

1. Grease the bowl generously with butter.
2. In a small heavy pan, heat the cream, butter and salt over medium low. Lower the heat to low and add the Nutella. Whisk together until totally combined. Set aside until just a bit warm.
3. Add the egg yolks to a large bowl and whisk until a bit frothy. Pour the Nutella mixture into the eggs, whisking while you add it so the eggs don’t curdle.
4. In a separate bowl, whip the egg white with an electric mixer. When the egg whites start looking foamy, add the cream of tartar and the sugar. Whisk until stiff peaks form, but don’t let it dry out.
5. Stir in about a quarter of the egg whites into the egg yolk and Nutella mixture. Gently fold the rest of the egg whites in with a spatula. Sprinkle on the flour and gently fold that in as well.
6. Prepare the steamed pudding (as directed in the video link above). Set a tea towel in the bottom of a huge pot that will hold the pudding bowl. Add the bowl and pour boiling water until halfway up the sides of the bowl. Set over medium low heat (until the water is simmering) and cover the pot. (You may need to add water part of the way through)
7. Steam the pudding for an hour. Remove from heat and let stand for 15 minutes. This is a good time to prepare the Nutella sauce, if you are making it.

Nutella sauce
1/4 cup (60ml) Nutella
3 tablespoons boiling water

Add the Nutella to a medium-sized bowl. While whisking, pour the boiling water over the Nutella. It may seize up at first, but as the water gets incorporated, it will become smooth again.

Sweetened creme fraiche
1/2 cup (120ml) creme fraiche
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine the creme fraiche, sugar and vanilla. Stir together until smooth.

Links:
Cook and Eat: DIY Nutella
World Nutella Day
Ms. Adventures in Italy
Bleeding Espresso

My New Year’s cooking resolution is to cook more Filipino food, specifically food that I grew up eating. The other week I was having a discussion with my 6-year-old, and told him I was cooking one of Grandma’s recipes. He was like, “oh, so you’re making Chinese food?” Um, nooooo.

I cook a lot, and I cook ‘fiesta’ food on special occasions (pancit, lumpia, leche flan), but aside from rice, I surprisingly don’t cook a whole lot of Filipino food on the regular. I plan on changing that this year: some old recipes and also, hopefully, some recipes I haven’t tried yet will make their way onto this site. I may have to rename it “Crispy Pata” to be accurate!

So in reference to our Chinese/Filipino discussion, I started the year by making siopao on New Year’s day. Siopao is basically a Filipino adaptation of the steamed Chinese char siu bao, but with a uniquely sweet/salty pork filling that is purely Filipino.

I was a bit disappointed with the recipe I ended up using for the dough, so if you have a dough recommendation, send it my way! I found this dough did not have the light, fluffy, slightly chewy quality of most Filipino siopao. (For example, I almost never see siopao that have cracks in it.)

The filling is my own because the Filipina ladies in my family would kill me if I published their top secret recipes. I guesstimated the ingredients, made it my own (I love pork belly so I used it here) and it came out incredibly close to the asado filling I grew up eating.

Siopao asado
Makes a dozen steamed buns

For the bun:
1 cup warm water (about 110F)
2-1/4 teaspoons instant yeast (if you only have active dry yeast, make sure to proof it first)
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

For the filling:
2 pounds (1 kg) pork belly
1 cup chicken broth
1 small onion, diced (the size of a shallot)
3 tablespoons Filipino soy sauce (such as Datu Puti, if you don’t have it, a ‘superior’ soy sauce will work)
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
3 tablespoons sugar

1. Preparing the filling: Preheat the oven to 300 F (150 C). Combine the pork belly with the chicken broth in a baking dish and cover tightly with foil. Bake for 2 hours, or until the pork is very tender. Remove from oven and discard the broth (or set it aside for a different use).
2. Raise oven temperature to 450 F (220 C). Place the pork back in the oven, uncovered, and roast for 30 minutes, fat side up. Remove and let the pork cool, then chop it into bite-size pieces.
3. Combine the soy sauce, sugar, oyster sauce in a small bowl. Heat a wok over medium high. Add a tablespoon of vegetable oil, swirl it around, and add the onion. Cook until soft, about 5 minutes.
4. Add the pork and the sauce. Heat through until the sauce has thickened a bit, about 5 minutes. Add salt to taste if necessary. Remove to a bowl and let the filling cool.
5. For the dough: Combine the water, yeast, sugar and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment. Add the flour and knead the dough for about 10 minutes, until it is smooth and elastic and not sticky. I take it out of the mixer toward the end and put it on a floured surface to knead for a few minutes by hand.
6. Grease the inside of a large bowl. Turn the dough into it and cover with a towel. Let rise in a warm spot until doubled, about 2 hours.
7. Remove the dough, sprinkle it with the baking powder and knead it until the baking powder is worked in. Separate into 12 equal pieces on a lightly floured surface. Cover again with a kitchen towel and let it rise for 30 minutes. While the dough is rising, cut 12 squares of parchment paper to go underneath each bun when it steams.
8. When you are ready to fill the dough, roll the dough out or flatten with your hands and fill with 2 tablespoons of filling. Pinch the dough closed, trying not to get filling on the outside of the bun.
9. Prepare a wok for steaming. Place the buns in the steaming basket for 15-20 minutes. (Do this in batches if necessary)
10. Serve warm, or allow to cool, then wrap them in cling wrap and keep in the refrigerator.