Baboy at Langka with Black Eyed Peas

Baboy at Langka with Black Eyed Peas. This recipe is adopted from KBL - Baboy Langka at Kadyos a popular Iloilo. Kadyos is obviously not available down here so I used black eyed peas or beans instead. I have just recently cooked a similar black eyed beans dish using fork belly instead of pork hocks or pork pata, Black Eyed Pea with Pork Belly, that dish however was adopted from a similar dish called Pinablad a Pusi. There are also similar beans and pork dish in the archive just click the links below to check out recipes recipe.



KBL – Kadyos, Baboy at Langka

Kadyos, Baboy at Langka – Purple KBL

Black Eyed Pea with Pork Belly, Pinablad a Pusi

As a substitute for batwan as a souring ingredient I just used sinigang mix. Obviously langka is also not available therefore I have to use the canned langka usually available in Asian stores I Here is the recipe of my Baboy at Langka with Black Eyed Peas.

Ingredients:



1 small size pata ng baboy, pork leg

2 cups black eyed peas

1 big can canned unripe langka, drained, sliced thinly

1-2 tbsp. sampalok sinigang mix

1 medium size onion, quartered

2 medium size tomato, quartered

2 stalk tanglad, lemon grass

3-4 pcs. green long chili

salt

Cooking procedure:



Ask the butcher to saw cut the pork leg crosswise at 1 1/2” thick slices. Wash thoroughly and drain, in a charcoal grill quickly sear pork leg, in a large pot put seared pork leg and cover with enough water, bring to a boil for 3 to 5 minutes, Discard first boiled liquid and rinse boiled pork leg off scum. Now pour fresh water to cover pork leg add the lemon grass, bring to a boil and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes then add the black eyed peas. Continue to simmer for 15 to 20 minutes or until the pork are tender and the black eyed peas start to disintegrate and the desired liquid consistency is achieved. Take out all scum that rises to the surface and add more water as necessary. Add in the sampalok sinigang mix, onion, tomato, green chili and canned jackfruit, simmer for another 10 to 15 minutes or until vegetables are cooked. Season with salt to taste. Serve hot with rice.

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James Martin's Orange Curd Pudding

Recently I have been adding to my cookery book collection every time I go into my local charity shop - but I've had to stop as I've run out of space on my shelves! One of my last purchases was James Martin's Desserts - James Martin is regularly seen on Saturday Kitchen on the BBC which I do like to watch when I get the chance. I liked the look of his 'fresh orange curd pudding' which looked quite cake-like in consistency and perfect for a cold day. It's also very simple to make.

Serves 4

You need:

300ml orange juice

grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

60g butter, softened, plus extra for greasing

90g caster sugar

4 eggs, separated

70g self-raising flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

160ml milk

Preheat oven to 180C and butter the sides of a 1-litre ovenproof bowl. Put the orange juice and lemon juice in a saucepan, bring to the boil and simmer until reduced by half, then set aside to cool.

In a bowl, beat the butter, sugar and lemon zest, then gradually mix in the egg yolks.

Fold in the flour and baking powder. Then stir in the orange and lemon juice and the milk.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff and gradually fold into the mixture.

Pour the mixture into your greased bowl and stand it in a roasting tin. Pour boiling water into the tin so it comes half way up the side of the bowl.

Bake in the oven for about an hour - check in the last ten minutes to make sure the top isn't getting too brown. You can cover the dish with foil to stop the top burning if necessary.

Serve the pudding hot. You can sprinkle the top with icing sugar and it would also work well with custard. The texture is like a doughy cake with an intense citrus hit - it was really nice.

I'm entering this in Alphabakes, the blog challenge I host with Ros of the More Than Occasional Baker, as the letter we have chosen this month is O.

The theme for this month's Calendar Cakes, hosted by Laura of Laura Loves Cakes and Rachel at Dollybakes, is puddings, so I am sending them my orange curd pudding as well.

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Crispy Tokwa’t Baboy, Crspy Fried Pork with Tofu

Crispy Tokwa’t Baboy, Crspy Fried Pork with Tofu. Tokwa at baboy is synonym to lugaw and arroz caldo. Tokwa at baboy is served as a side dish for lugaw or arroz caldo. To most Pinoy Tokwa’t Baboy is made up of boiled pork face and ears plus fried tokwa or firm tofu, with vinegar, soy sauce, chopped onion and garlic dressing. OPC has been very innovative with discovering other version of this dish using other meat that goes with tokwa. Click the links below to discover some alternative for Tokwa’t Baboy.



Tokwa't Baboy, Pork and Tofu

Tokwa't Isda, Fish and Tofu

Tokwa't Baka, Beef and Tofu

Tokwa’t Manok

Tokwa’t Pinakurat

Today I would like to share a crunchy version, Crispy Tokwa’t Baboy. I cooked this Crispy Tokwa’t Baboy as a side dish for a Beef Face and Tripe Lugaw that I have prepared which I thought would best serve at this time since it has been raining for most part of the week here in Central Queensland Australia. During this time of the year it should be very hot, we should be experiencing extreme high temperature. November and December are the peak months of summer on this part Australia. With a lot of rain lately, the weather is behaving strangely. Yesterday November 17, 2013, it even rain with ice the size of grapes, below is the video of that hailstorm.

Queensland November 17, 2013 Hailstorm

Ok let’s get back to my version of Crispy Tokwa’t Baboy, Crispy Fried Pork with Tofu. To make the dish it is similar to my other Tokwa’t Baboy recipe, the only difference is the extra cooking step of deep frying the pork till crisp similar to the Lechon Kawali. I have also added some Chinese twist to the fried pork by pre-boiling the pork, I used pork belly, with Chinese 5-Spice and some star anise. Here is the recipe of my Crispy Tokwa’t Baboy, Crispy Fried Pork with Tofu.

Ingredients:



1/2 pork belly, cut into four parts

2 large blocks, firm tofu

2 medium size onion, peeled, chopped or sliced

1 medium size onion, peeled, quartered

1/2 head whole garlic, peeled, crushed

1/2 head garlic, peeled, chopped

1 piece bay leaf

1/2 tsp. peppercorns

1-2 pcs. Star anise

1-2 piece long chili, chopped

1 small bunch spring onion, trimmed, chopped

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup vinegar

1 tbsp. sugar

1 tsp. Chinese 5-spice powder

cooking oil

salt

Cooking Procedure:



In a big pot place the pork belly, crushed garlic, quartered onion, bay leaf, peppercorns, star anise and Chinese 5-spice powder, add generous amount of salt. Pour enough water to cover ppork and bring to a boil, simmer for 30 to 45 minutes or until pork is tender. Remove from pot clean any scum and let cool, and chill in a refrigerator. In the meantime, using a big bowl mix chopped onion, chooped garlic, chopped long green chili, soy sauce, vinegar, salt and sugar keep aside until ready to serve.



In a frying pan deep fry chilled boiled pork belly until color change to a golden brown, remove from pan and drain excess oil, let cool. Cut fried pork belly into cubes or serving pieces set aside.



Now using the same pan, deep fry the tokwa until color change to golden brown, remove from pan and drain excess oil, let cool. Cut fried tokwa into cubes or serving pieces set aside.



When ready to serve toss fried pork, fried tokwa and the vinaigrette mixture in a bowl, garnish with chopped spring onion. Serve as side a dish for lugaw or arroz caldo.

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Shoe theme birthday party

Last year I had a birthday party with a shoe theme. I wanted to write a post pulling all the ideas together but have only just gotten around to it. It's a fun theme that could easily be adapted for children or adults - after all, who doesn't have a favourite pair of heels, whether they are Start-Rite pink patents or Manolo Blahniks?



My birthday cake had a shoe theme; I decided to make a two-tier pink polka dot cake with a pair of shoes on top (obviously you could make it in any colour). If I did it again I would make a rectangular cake that looks like a shoe box and put the pair of shoes on top. I made the shoes in a cake decorating class; you can see how I did it here.







I also made some filled chocolates in the shape of shoes and handbags







Finally I made some White Russian cupcakes, using cupcake wrappers with a shoe print. I cut out shoe shapes from fondant using a mini cutter and placed these on top of the cake.







As one of my friends is vegan, I also made some vegan chocolate cupcakes and distinguished them with a green shoe on top using the same cutter.







Shoe cookies would be great for a shoe themed party as well; you can bake simple sugar cookies or shortbread and use a cookie cutter, then either decorate the shoes yourself or get your guests to decorate them when they arrive. This would be good fun as an activity at a children's party, though it could get rather messy, so you should provide your guests with aprons!



Maybe you could also make some choux buns - shoe buns - get it?



Ros from The More Than Occasional Baker came to my birthday party and made these amazing shoe cupcakes. Hop over to her blog and see how she did it!



I also asked my guests to wear their most fabulous and funky shoes and one friend in particular, Sandra, didn't let me down - she arrived in bright red sequinned high heels.



I wanted an activity for my guests to enjoy and came across this shoe quiz online. You can download the questions and print out question and answer sheets, and get the answers by making a small donation to the Multiple Sclerosis society. There are three different quizzes on this website so there is something for everyone. A shoe-themed prize is also a good idea!



If your party is for adults, don't forget the cocktails - how about a Moscow Mule, or a Singapore Sling-back?

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Baked Tinapa

Baked Tinapa. Tinapa what-ever type of fish is one of our favorite Pinoy fish dish, but it cooking leave’s a smoky fishy odor on your kitchen walls and curtains that will linger for days. Today I am again craving for tinapa but the last time I cooked it, that smoky fishy odor even get into my office shirt. Well I have thought of cooking tinapa in an oven to reduced the smoky fishy odor and today it’s time to try it and let see if we could at least minimize the odor beside making it as yummy or even better than frying the tinapa.

To bake the tinapa I needed some aromatic ingredients that will go with my bake tinapa but I found out that I have anything special in the ref and cupboard except onions, tomatoes and lemons. So I have to stick to the basic Pinoy ingredients and it return it is more authentic Pinoy dish, the final product? It did come out great and the tinapa smoky fishy odor was confined inside the oven and it was overwhelmed by the aroma of the onions.



Here is how I cooked my Baked Tinapa try it!

Ingredients:



12 pcs. galungong ginapa or other fish tinapa

2 medium size onions, peeled sliced

2 large size tomatoes, sliced

1 medium size lemon, sliced

olive oil or cooking oil

Baking Procedure:



Pre heat the oven to 250°C. Arrange half of the sliced onion in a medium size glass baking dish to form a bed for the smoked fish. Arrange the smoked fish side by side then disperse the remaining half of the sliced onion on the top. Arrange the sliced lemon evenly on the top of the smoke fish. Place the sliced tomato around the side of the baking dish then generously drizzle with olive oil. Place the baking dish inside the preheated oven and bake for 35 to 45 minutes at 250°C. Serve while it is still hot with vinegar garlic and chili dip.

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Tinolang Tahong at Pechay, Green Mussels with Bok Choy

Tinolang Tahong at Pechay, Green Mussels with Bok Choy. Back home we would prefer our tinolang tahong with kangkong. But when in overseas kangkong will likely be not available in most part of the world. Down here in Australia kangkong is only available in some key cities with significant number of Asian communities. I am presently located in some remote mining town here in Australia therefore I had to innovate or find an alternative to kangkong. Luckily bok choy is for some reason is one of the more common Asian vegetables here, which is as good as kangkong for my tinolang tahong. Frozen green mussels from New Zealand are readily available in most supermarkets here. In fact I have already posted a recipe using New Zealand frozen green mussel, Green Mussels and Vegetables in Coconut Milk. Cooking tinolang tahong with pechay is not new, you may have found a similar recipe in the net already. But I am sure you may want to cook the OPC version. Cooking is easy and simple, it is basically the same with your tinolang tahong with kankong. Here is the recipe of my Tinolang Tahong at Pechay, Green Mussels with Bok Choy.

Ingredients:



1 kilo frozen green mussels

1 to 2 thumb size ginger, skinned, sliced into strips

1/2 head garlic, peeled, crushed, chopped

1 medium size onion, peeled, sliced

1-2 bunch bok choy, trimmed

1 small bunch of spring onions or leeks, trimmed, cut into 2” lengths

2-3 pieces green/red long chili

cooking oil

Cooking procedure:



Rinse the mussels and drain, scrub off any dirt that are attached to the shells. In a wok or pan sauté garlic, ginger and onion until fragrant. Pour 1 to 1 1/2 cups water and bring to a boil. Add in mussels and allow water to boil once more and simmer until the shells start to open then add in the bok choy, long chili and leeks, simmer for another 2 to 3 minutes or until done. Serve hot.

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