Mango Graham Cake

ANG BONGGANG DESSERT

                                 I made these for my Byenan, and boy was she happy

                                 It was her 65th birthday, syempre pa may party
                                 Packed very carefully, we brought them for lunch
                                 But what she had to say, no one had a hunch

                                 "Itago na yan sa ref!" Kami ay nagulat
                                 They all wanted a bite, but Byenan said DO NOT!
                                 I wondered, ba't kaya, 'ndi yata na-impress
                                 Pero sabi nya bigla "Whoa, this is the best!"

                                 Ay naku ang lalim, ng aking sigh of relief
                                 Akalain ko ba naman, Byenan pala'y bilib!
                                 "Dadalhin ko 'yan bukas, I'll be given a citation
                                 Kasi I'm retiring na, sakto 'to sa dessert station"
         
                                 I love my dear Byenan, wala yang halong bola
                                 Knowing that I made her happy, puyat ko'y sulit na
                                 She texted me pa the next day, dessert ko daw ay mabenta
                                 Now lang daw sila nakakita, pang-himagas na bongga

I'll be sharing the recipe on my next post, and how to make it bongga. Stay tuned! =)

The Secret to the Bonggang Dessert

Here's how to make this easy but bonggang dessert.
Prepare the following ingredients:

• 4 big ripe mangoes
• 2 packs Crushed graham crackers

• 1 300 ml can Nestle cream, chilled
• 3 tetra packs all-purpose ceam, chilled
• 225 ml condensed milk (1 can is 300ml)
• 1-2 tsp. lemon juice (optional)

1. Mix the last 4 ingredients well to make a rich, creamy mixture. Set aside. Since the cream is chilled prior to this step, chances are, we'll get the perfect consistency later, when we start layering. (it turns out too thick if too cold; and runny if not chilled)

2. Now it's time to prep the mangoes. Slice like how we all do it, leaving the seed, like photo #1 below. Scoop the fruit from the skin with a big spoon or a wide mouth glass; see photo #2. Then chop of both ends of the scooped mango and slice thinly the rest thinly. refer to photo #3.

2. Now let's start layering the 3 major parts of  the obra: The crushed Graham crackers, the cream mixture and the mangoes. Apparently that's the correct sequence.

                  So again, that's crushed Graham crackers, the cream mixture, mangoes.

                  Crushed Graham crackers, cream mixture, mangoes.

                  Crushed Graham crackers, cream mixture.... STOP!

3. It's time to make it bongga. Arrange the mangoes in a circular fashion, starting from the edges as shown in photo #1 below. Work your way towards the center, making sure to place the 'petals' in an increasingly upright position until you reach the middle. By then, you shall have formed the beautiful flower.

                                 Put it now in the ref, chill for like 20 minutes

                                 Then magbihis ka na bilis, dont ask na kung bakit!

                                 Birthday man o hindi, go bring that to your Byenan

                                 At least, for the record, nakapag-sipsip ka kahit minsan

Hopya

Here's a common scene in the house that has probably been making our helpers cringe.

I welcome Totoy giddily from work, "Guess what's for dinner?"

He sniffs 3 times and guesses. It doesn't matter if he's right or wrong; I run to the kitchen to get the masterpiece of the night. This usually happens when I cook something he likes that I've never cooked before or when I cook something I know he's been craving for.

"Knock! Knock!", my voice from the kitchen.

"Who's there?" he'd say. My husband is always ready to answer my knock-knocks.

"Hopya." I start walking at this point.

"Hopya, who?"

"Here. HOPYA LIKE IT!" I say as I put down the dish on the table. I carefully watch the pacing of my walk to achieve that perfect timing.

Here's a dish that was once a part of that scene. I hopya like it too!

CHOP SUEY RECIPE

(inspired by Hap Chan's Chop Suey)

Prepare the following vegetables to blanch:

• about 2 cups cauliflower florets
• 1 1/2 cups snow peas (chicharo)
• 1 big chayote
• 2 cups baby corn
• 1 cup carrots
• 1 1/2 cups green (Baguio) beans
• half head cabbage

For the sauce, premix the ff to a slurry:

• 2 cups water
• 1 chicken cube, dissolved on 2 tbsp hot water
• 1/2 cup rice wine
• 1 1/2 tbsp. light soy sauce
• 1 1/2 tbsp. patis
• 1/4 cup oyster sauce
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 1/2 tbsp. cornstarch

and these: 

• 2 tbsp. sesame oil
• 1 tsp. minced ginger
• 2 tbsp. minced garlic
• 1 chopped big white onion
• 2 chopped red bell peppers
• 1 big can button mushrooms

 For garnish:

• 2 doz. boiled quail eggs
• sesame oil
• cilantro

1. Boil salted water and blanch the vegetables. You can do it in batches according to which vegetables you want to make more tender. Limit the cooking time per batch to 1 to 5 minutes only to avoid overcooking. Drain and set aside.

2. Stir fry ginger, garlic, onion and bell pepper on sesame oil until aromatic. Add the mushrooms, then the slurry. Bring to a boil while stirring constantly until the sauce thickens.

3. Add the vegetables and stir until heated thourougly. Serve with quail eggs, top with few cilantro sprigs and drizzle with sesame oil.

  Hopya! :)

Fish Tempura

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This fish recipe brings to mind my memories of a little boy who once lived with us. His name was RJ. His mother, Mercy, was our helper. No one could look after him if his mother were to continue working for us at that time, so we told Mercy she could bring him along. We thought it would benefit everyone if she did. Work and shelter for them, househelp for us and a play buddy for Choychoy.

Choychoy seemed to like RJ, but RJ didn't like him back. Mainly it had to do with him and Choychoy accidentally bumping against each other on their very first play session. RJ ended up being thrown a good 4 feet across the room. Imagine a small car colliding with something big, say, the planet Jupiter. No one's fault, really, just simple physics at work, but the incident traumatized RJ a great deal. He would react to Choychoy's every move as though it were life threatening. It didn’t help that RJ weighed only about as much as all of Choychoy's toes combined. My poor baby worked his way around RJ as gently as he could but RJ would run like hell for the nearest exit every time he found himself in the same room as my son.

Diyos ko, iligtas nyo po ako...

Choychoy was the biggest boy he had ever seen, RJ said, and he couldn't believe how a boy his age could be as strong as a bull. (Honestly, we couldn't believe it, either.) Needless to say, the play buddy plan didn't work out.

There was one thing that RJ couldn't stay away from, though. It was my Fish Tempura. He just couldn't get enough of them. Ate it like Chippy, actually.

The day RJ and his mom bid us goodbye, I served up a Fish Tempura that (along with his memories of a giant playmate) he will never forget.

..... Looking back now, I think the only logical way I could have gotten him to play with my boy was if Choychoy was wearing a string of Fish Tempura around his neck. :)

 

============================

FISH TEMPURA

1. First, prepare your boneless fillet. I use Cream Dory (Pangasius) which you can easily get at any supermarket's frozen section. Slice them into strips and season with salt and pepper. Put in freezer first while you prepare the batter. You can also start heating a pot of vegetable oil at this point, for deeep frying.

 

2. Mix the following dry ingredients in a bowl:

• 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1/8 tsp. baking soda 

3. In another bowl, beat an egg and an extra egg white slightly, then add a cup of ice water. Again, that's:

• 1 egg
• 1 egg white
• 1 cup ice water

4. Put the egg mixture in the bowl of dry ingredients. Stir very slightly, even leaving some portions unmixed. Mixing it will produce gluten and will fail you to achieve that lacy, bubbly texture on your tempura.

5. Put the bowl of batter in a bigger bowl of ice cubes. This is to ensure the fish batter is very, very cold when you drop them in a pot of very, vey hot oil.

6. Put all the cold fish in the lumpy batter. Fold to cover the fish just before dropping it on the very hot oil. Watch it sizzle into a light and lacy Tempura. Fry for about 6 minutes and serve with Tentsuyu.

Dipping Sauce (Tentsuyu):

Put the following ingredients in a pan and cook under low heat until sugar is melted. The original recipe calls for dashi soup stock instead of water but this surprisingly turned out delicious.

• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup mirin
• 1/4 cup Kikkoman soy sauce
• 1/2 Tbsp sugar

Summer Vacation Tip #1

Do not force your children to pose for pictures. It won't be worth it.