Recipe | Bibingkang Malagkit

Are you looking for an extra income this holiday season?  Or maybe impress your family with a dish you made from scratch? Well, you just came to the right place.  Here's a rice cake recipe that is one of my most favorite Filipino delicacies, bibingkang malagkit.  

This recipe will teach you patience and also gives you the chance to do some arm exercise while cooking -- because of its continuous stirring for more than an hour.  But don't worry, the result would be worth it.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp coconut oil or butter
1 banana leaf

2-3 pandan leaves
4 cups fresh coconut milk
2 cups sticky rice, washed
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
additional 2-4 cups coconut milk or water

Topping:
2 cups fresh coconut milk
125 ml all-purpose cream

1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar


Procedure:

1. Heat coconut milk with pandan leaves in a pot over medium-high heat.
2. Wash sticky rice three times. Drain.
3. Add washed sticky rice on simmering coconut milk. Stir. Let it simmer.
4. Heat banana leaf on the stove to excrete its natural oil.
5. Place the banana leaf in a pan and brush top and sides with coconut milk or butter.
6. Keep on stirring the sticky rice mixture.  If it thickens, add coconut milk or water gradually until the rice is soft.
7. Add light brown sugar and salt in between stirring.
8. Continuously stir. It would take you more than an hour on stirring since this is a slow-cooking process.
9. Once rice is cooked, pour it over the pan with banana leaf.
10. Preheat oven to 350F.
11. Heat coconut milk in a pot.  Add dark brown sugar and cream.
12. Keep on stirring until mixture thickens like a caramel sauce.
13. Pour mixture on top of the sticky rice.
14. Bake for 35 minutes or until the top turned darker or slightly burnt.
15. Serve warm or cold.

Recipe | Filipino Laksa

Difficulty Level: Medium

Actually, this recipe is easy.  The only tedious part is 'deveining' your shrimp.

You can omit pork, but the taste would be different as pork fat gives a distinct taste on your sauteed veggies.  So, this is a surf and turf dish. :)

Since it's weekend and we're currently experiencing a gloomy and rainy weather, this recipe is perfect for you and your family!

For Taglish recipe, click here.

Yield: Good for 2

Ingredients:

1/8 pork cubes

1/4 shrimp, deveined

3 small red onions, sliced

4 cloves garlic, chopped

2 small tomatoes, sliced

2-3 cups water

1 small pack of vermicelli (sotanghon)

2-3 cups hot water (para sa sotanghon)

1 small puso ng saging o banana blossom, chopped

Rock salt

1-2 tbsps soy sauce

Salt and Pepper to taste

*optional: chopped onion leeks*


Procedure:

• Take off the shrimp's head and shell.  Keep the heads aside.

• Devein shrimp by slicing the middle top part of it, not too deep, and discard the black vein.

• Salt shrimp and rinse thoroughly.  Set aside.

• Evenly coat chopped banana blossom with rock salt.  Let it sit for 5-15 minutes before rinsing thoroughly.  Drain.

• Render pork in a pot.  Add salt.

• While rendering pork, place vermicelli in a bowl and pour hot water in it.  Let it soak until you need to stir it in on the laksa soup.

• Keep stirring your pork cubes until cooked.  Set aside.  You'll use it as a topping later.

• Saute shrimp heads.  Squeeze out its juice as it has more flavor by pressing down your ladle.

• Once cooked, you can discard the shrimp heads.

• Then saute your sliced onions, chopped garlic, and sliced tomatoes.

• Add in your chopped and rinsed banana blossom.

• Pour water until it covers the rest of the ingredients.  Cover and let it simmer.

• Once banana blossom is cooked (wilted), you can add water if necessary, and 1-2 tbsps of soy sauce.

• Don't forget to taste your soup.  Add salt and pepper if necessary.

• Optional: add in chopped onion leeks.

• Top your laksa with cooked pork and serve!

Recipe video:

Recipe | Creamy Chicken Soup (Sopas)

Since it's rainy these days, I might as well share with you a Filipino comfort food that we usually eat for merienda or snack.  But I eat as a meal for lunch or dinner.

Some would react on my recipe videos/blogs that it's not the way they make it.  No one has to set a standard on how to make things.  Do what makes you happy and comfortable in cooking, or maybe also in baking.  All we care about is the end result.  But don't forget to add the most important ingredient of all, L O V E. :)
<3 p="">
<3 p="">I'm sharing simple recipes in the meantime so as to not overwhelm you readers/viewers who are not confident in the kitchen.  
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<3 p="">If you have questions or suggestions, feel free to comment down below and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. :) <3 br="">


#spreadlovenothate
<3 p="">
<3 p="">For Taglish recipe, click on this link.

Yield: Good for 4

Ingredients:

1/2 kg chicken, tinola cut
***you can use chicken breast, cut into pieces, and add 1/4 kg of chicken soup cuts (neck or bones)

*1/4 kg chicken liver, cut into pieces (optional)

Rock salt (to clean chicken and liver)

2-4 tbsps fish sauce, or salt if you have none

5 cloves garlic, minced

1 large red onion, sliced thinly

1 large carrot, diced

1 medium-sized potato, diced

1 stalk celery, sliced

125g o 1/2 kg macaroni shells

4 cups water

2 tsps ground black pepper

2-3 bay leaves

250ml evaporated milk, I used Alaska

3-6 tbsps canola oil (I eyeballed this one)

1/2 bok choy or 1/4 small cabbage, chopped

2 tbsps butter



Procedure:

1. Rub salt onto chicken and chicken liver.  Rinse.  Add a little amount of rock salt once again.
2. Heat pot and oil.
3. Saute rinsed and salted chicken until brown.  Add chicken liver (optional).
4. Add 2-4 tbsps of fish sauce or 2 tbsps iodized salt.
5. Add sliced onions and sweat until translucent. 
6. Add minced garlic.  Stir until you smell the aroma of cooked garlic.
7. Add chopped celery.
8. Add diced potatoes and carrots.  Stir.
9. Pour evaporated milk.
10. Pour in water.  Stir.  
11. Add in macaroni shells. Stir. You can cook macaroni shells separately or prior to this soup. 
12. Add pepper.  Stir.  Then add bay leaves. 
13. Slightly cover pot and let it simmer under medium heat.
14. Stir, and place a wooden spatula on the top center of the pot to prevent soup from boiling over.
15. Remove wooden spatula and skim impurities or milk skin.
16. Stir.  Place wooden spatula back at the center top of the pot.  Let it simmer until macaroni, potatoes, and carrots are cooked just right.
17. Add more water if needed.  Don't forget to stir.  Let it simmer.
18. Taste soup and test if macaroni is al dente.  Adjust salt if needed.  If too salty, add more milk or water.
19. Add chopped bok choy or cabbage.
20. Add butter and stir until melted.
21. Serve warm. :)

For video recipe, you can watch it here:

Recipe | Fried Bangus Sinigang

AM wanted fried fish to go along with sinigang, but I wanted the boiled fish instead.  So I might as well combine both, which is similar with the Tagalog's Tochio dish.

Ingredients:

1 bangus (milkfish) fish head

rock salt

4-6 pcs tomatoes, quartered

4-6 pcs red onions, quartered

2-4 bags of small sampalok (tamarind)

1 tali ng kangkong leaves or more if you want

*sitaw (legumes), cut in 2 inches

*1 eggplant, diagonally sliced or whatever slice suits you

*banana blossom or puso ng saging, chopped, salted for five minutes and rinsed

1 medium-sized labanos (radish), diagonally sliced

okra, sliced

green chili

4 cups water

For fried bangus:

Rock salt

Bangus cut crosswise

1 cup flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

Ziploc bag

Oil

Procedure:

1. Rub rock salt onto fish.
2. Heat pan, then pour oil.
3. Mix flour, salt and pepper in a Ziploc bag.
4. Dump in cut bangus except for its head.  Shake.
5. Dust-off excess flour on fish before placing it into warm oil for frying.  Lower the heat to medium.
6. Flip over and set aside once fish are cooked.
7. In a pot, place in tomatoes, onions, fish head, and eyeball a good amount of rock salt.
8. Pour in 4 cups of water.  Then bring it to a boil.
9. Add in sampalok and radish.
10. Set aside fish head.
11. Once sampalok are cooked (when it's popped out and are softer), strain each piece and submerge the strainer into the simmering/boiling soup while extracting its juice using the back of your ladle.
12. Discard sampalok.  And you can place back the fish head into the soup.
13. Add in sitaw, if you have, together with the eggplant, and banana blossom (puso ng saging).
14. Once half-cooked, add in kangkong, green chili and okra.
15. Taste the soup.  Add rock salt if needed.  If it's too sour, you can add more water and adjust its saltiness to your liking.
16. Serve hot with rice.

For video recipe:

Recipe | Chicken Tomato Stew

Here's a quick and easy chicken tomato stew recipe for those who are busy doing other tasks at home but wanted a hearty meal.  This recipe is similar to Filipino's chicken afritada or pochero.

Yield:  Good for 2

Ingredients:

1/2 kg chicken

Rock salt for chicken

4 cloves of garlic, chopped

2 small red onions, chopped

2 small potatoes, diced (you can also use marble potatoes)

1 cup tomato sauce (homemade or canned)

1 cup water

1 tsp dried thyme (if fresh, add these 2 minutes before serving while simmering)

1 small green bell pepper

1 tie of bok choi / pechay

Salt and pepper to taste

Canola oil for searing (about 1/8 cup or smaller quantity)


Procedure:

1. Rub salt onto chicken.  Rinse off with running water.  Add rock salt again onto chicken.
2. Heat saucepan/saucepot in medium high heat.  Add canola oil.
3. Sear chicken, don't fry.  Flip chicken.
4. Add garlic, onions, potatoes.
5. Pour in tomato sauce and water.
6. Add dried thyme.  If fresh, add it 2 minutes in simmering stew before serving.
7. Simmer in medium low heat until potatoes and chicken are cooked.
8. Add green bell pepper and bok choi (pechay). Stir and simmer until veg are half cooked.
9. Season to taste.
10. Serve with steamed rice.

You can also view my video recipe here: