#173_Easy Homemade Mango Jam

Mango Jam

Mango jam is my number one favorite jam,
but I have an issue with the sugar contents
in those commercially made ones.
I'm so glad I can make my own so I can control
the amount of sugar I can use in the recipe.
It is very easy to make and no pectin necessary.

This kind of mango is okay for jams.
When peeled and sliced, 6 mangoes makes about 7 cups

Peel mangoes and slice and chop into chunks.

To the sliced mangoes, add 1 cup water.
Bring it up to a boil over medium high heat
then lower heat to medium low
and simmer for about 30 minutes
stirring frequently to avoid scorching.
Add 1-1/4 cups white sugar ( more if prefer)
and juice of 1 lemon or lime.
Stir to mix the sugar well with the mangoes.
Continue to simmer on low heat for another 30 minutes or til thick
without disturbing the mixture the first 15 minutes
after you put in the sugar.
( I like my mango jam chunky so I don't put it through a sieve)

Ladle hot jam into hot sterilized jars
and process in water bath for about 10 minutes.
(Please refer to canning guides)
This recipe yields 10- 4 oz. jars

or yields 5-8oz. containers

Another way to preserve the jam
is to ladle them into freezing jars, then freeze.
Very good on buttered toasted bread and pancakes;
and topping for Biko, click here and here.

ENJOY!!

**************************************

#172_Peach Jam

Every year a good friend of mine, Erlinda, brings

me nice and sweet peaches from her peach trees.
Just like making lemonade when somebody gives you lemons,
I make peach jam when she gives me peaches!
Thank you, Erlinda! You're as nice and sweet as the peaches!


There are some peaches that the skins easily peel off,
but once in a while there
are some that are a little hard to peel.

If you run into some that won't easily peel off,
here's a little trick I picked up from some food gurus:

Cut an X on the stem side of the fruit then blanch them
by submerging them into boiling water for a few minutes.

Drain them in a colander


As you can see the skins come right off.

To make the jam:
Slice the peaches and discard the pits.

This is about 4 lbs. of peaches.

Put sliced peaches in a big pot.
Over medium high heat, bring it up to a boil,
then lower the heat to medium low stirring frequently.
Simmer for about 30 minutes then add:
1-1/2 cup of white sugar
1 pouch liquid pectin
juice of 1 lemon or lime
Stir to blend all of the ingredients together.
Continue to simmer, but do not stir for about 15 minutes.
Stir then simmer for another 15 minutes.

Ladle hot jam into hot sterilized canning jars
then process in water bath.

Canning is quite a process and requires much time.
This is why I prefer freezing my jams.
However, when I do some canning I refer to a method
that I printed off Recipezaar website about 2 years ago
(before I was into blogging).
It is a recipe of a Tomato Salsa, but the author
has a step-by step process for canning.
Go to Recipezaar and type in 39006 on the search bar.

Good on buttered toasts

ENJOY!!

*****************************************

#171_Tomato Mango Relish

Magnificent Relish

Are you looking for a condiment for fried fish?
or steamed shrimps?
Here's a perfect one that pairs really well
with either fried fish or shrimps.

Just combine diced tomatoes and diced mangoes
with alamang na bagoong.
My friend, Aida, introduced me to this and I love it!

Ayyy na apo!! naim-imas ket di!

If you need to know how to clean and fry fish, click here.

*******************************************

#170_ Biko & Mango Jam Deja Vu

Biko Topped with Home-Made Mango Jam
from Post #167

The kids in my ward were playing "Fear Factor"
and requested people from other nationalities
to bring food from their countries.
Well, I didn't want to gross the kids out too bad so I thought
the new biko recipe of mine might be a good one to take to them.

Lisa Taylor in the center is holding the bilao-ful of biko
with the rest of the no-fear-for-the-biko youths.


Here's how to prepare this dessert:

1) Make the Biko without the traditional topping.
To check out the Biko recipe, click here.
2) Press cooked Biko in a baking dish and slice it into squares.
3) Place each slice in paper muffin cup liners.
4) Make indentations in the center of each rice cake
with the back of a measuring teaspoon,
then fill them with mango jam.

ENJOY!!!

***************************************

#169_BLT Sandwich Minus B & L

Fresh Tomato Open-Face Sandwich

I learned to make this sandwich from my g'son Spencer,
when he was helping me picked tomatoes
in the yard many years ago.
He said to me "gramma let's make some tomato sammich".
I said yes but, we don't have bacon.
He said we don't need bacon; then he showed me how.
Now I'm hooked but,
I only make this with freshly-picked tomatoes.
This is one reason why I plant tomatoes every year.

You need a good toasting bread like French bread, bagel, baguette, etc.

Toast slices of bread then slather them with mayo,
then top with slices of fresh tomatoes.

Sprinkle with salt. That's it!!
Really yummy!!

***************************************

#168_Harvest Time

You know Fall Season is around the corner
when we can harvest veggies from our garden.
I should get busy making something out of these veggies then freeze them.
What do you do with your harvests???

****************************************

#167_Biko with Mango Jam Topping

Here's another way to serve Biko.....
top it with Mango Jam. Mmmmmm goodness!!

I might be breaking the rules here
by deviating from the traditional biko topping,
but this sure gives the "old" Biko (click here), a nice lift.

I had biko and mango jam in the freezer and every time
I opened the freezer these two kept staring
at me like they're screaming:
"get me out of here!" and " eat me, eat me!"
I felt sorry for them so, finally the other day,
I took them out of the freezer
and thawed them out in the fridge overnight.
Just before I put them together,
I heated up the Biko in the microwave,
then topped it with Mango Jam.
What an excellent pair! Made in Heaven!
Fabulistic!!!

Mango Jam goes really well with sticky rice or malagkit or biko.
To make plain Biko check out Sushi Style Biko recipe #165.
For Mango Jam recipe click here.

I bought a box of these red/green mangoes a while back.
I knew I wouldn't enjoy them, but because I was desperate,
I thought I'd give them a try.
Didn't care much to eat them after all, but
to turn them into jam, they're okay.

***************************************

Hello Mga Kaibigan!

Sorry, I haven't been able to post anything for a while.
I'm still alive and kicking,
I am now just coming out of bad colds
and fever and flu and whatnot....
just bronchitis...nothing major!
So hopefully I'll be able to get back to my normal life pretty soon.

Take care everybody and keep cooking!!!

Love,
MaMely

#166_Baked Salmon in Foil

A nice friend and neighbor of mine and her hubby
brought me back this salmon they caught
when they went fishing at a lake.
I like its size, it is perfect at 18 inches.
Thank you Shirley & LeGrande!!

I thought I'd bake it so hubby might have some of it with me.

After cleaning the fish with baking soda, click here,
this is how I baked the fish:
Sprinkled some salt inside the cavity and outside of fish.
Put some sliced tomatoes and sliced onions,
and crushed garlic in the cavity then arranged sliced onions on top of fish.

Drizzled with olive oil then sealed the foil.

This is how the fish looked after it was baked

for about 45 minutes in a 350 degrees oven.
Nice and moist, flaky and flavorful.

I thought I'd share this with hubby so I decided to bake it,
just to find out he didn't want any of it.
anak ng pating! I should have known better!
I didn't really care much for baked fish either.
I should have fried it then made escabeche or sarciado na lang sana.

So I made some sinigang out of it which I will be posting later.
Did hubby like the sinigang? No way Jose!

****************************************

#165_Sushi Style Biko with Mango Custard Cream Filling

Mangoes + Brazo de Mercedes + Biko + Sushi=
A fantastic dessert

Not quite Heinz 57, but this is one "mixed-up" dessert!

For those not familiar with Brazo de Mercedes, it is a very popular dessert in the Philippines
made with baked meringue filled with custard cream, then rolled up like pumpkin roll cake or jelly roll. Here's some of the pictures, click here.

Biko is another favorite dessert in the Philippines made of glutinous rice, cooked in coconut cream and sugar. Click here.

To make this dessert, you'll need:

1 recipe for Biko without any topping
1 recipe for Custard Cream Filling
1 ripe mango, sliced lengthwise

The beauty of this dessert is that the main ingredients, the biko and cream filling, can be made ahead of time then refrigerated.
Before serving, just heat them in the microwave. You can even assemble it in front of our guests. It is that easy to make.

I modified the method for making Biko just for this recipe as I'm using it to roll up the mango filling, and it is not going back to the oven.

Here's how I did it:

This is just a half of the recipe
Please refer to recipe #7, click here, how to make Biko.

After cooking the glutinous rice in the rice cooker, dissolve 1 cup brown sugar in a 1/2 a can of coconut

milk, in a pan over medium heat. Bring it up to a boil. Stir in the cooked rice and continue to cook until it dries up and rice is fully cooked.

Lay a piece of plastic wrap on a work surface. On the plastic wrap spread some of the cooked rice into rectangle and spread some of the Custard Cream Filling. Arrange some sliced mangoes on the cream.

Roll up the filled rice just like rolling a jelly roll cake

Cut the rolled up Biko into about 2-inch thickness

Serve them on a plate with the cut sides up.
Put some more cream filling and cubes of mangoes on top.
Thin down the cream filling with milk
so you can drizzle it easily on top.

This is the best kind of mangoes to use for this dessert.
ENJOY!!

NOTE from MaMely:
For the custard cream filling, I used 1 whole can of coconut cream instead of 1/2 cup milk and 1/2 cup coconut cream.

#164_Ground Beef 'N Sour Cream Potato Casserole

I tried to scan this recipe but it didn't work well for me so
I just took a picture of it to save me
from typing the whole recipe. (this old lady is getting lazy!)
This is one of the several entries I submitted
to the cook book published by a company
I used to work for many years ago, (click here).

I made this today and doubled the recipe
using 11 x 15 x 2 casserole pan.

This is one of my favorite dishes to make for a big crowd
as the recipe can be doubled easily
and can be assembled ahead of time, refrigerate it,
then pop it in the oven when you need it.
It is also very forgiving kind of dish to make,
so you can't really go wrong with it.

Brown the ground beef with chopped onions.
Spread in a deep baking pan or casserole dish.

Peel and boil potatoes til half way done,
then grate using coarse side of a hand-held grater.
When I do a big batch, a food processor is my best friend.

Spread grated potatoes evenly on top of the meat,
then pour the soup mixture on top of the potatoes.
Sprinkle with grated cheese.

Mix melted butter with the cornflakes
slightly crushing the cornflakes.

Spread cornflakes on top.

Note:
One thing that I do that is not on the recipe book is I cover the casserole with aluminum foil that is sprayed with cooking spray the first 30 minutes of baking, then uncover and continue to bake for another 20 to 30 minutes.

****************************************

#163_Chocolate Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream Frosting

The title already describes what this dessert is.
Yes, these are chocolate cupcakes from
my aunt Betty's (Crocker) cake mix,
iced with buttercream frosting with
finely chopped strawberries.
Each cupcake is then topped with
whipped cream-filled strawberry, which is optional.


This is truly easy and simple to make dessert,
ideal for bridal shower, kids' birthday parties or girls' "PJ" parties.
Actually I made these for two birthdays today,
and it didn't take me very long to do 24 of them.
They are YUMMY!

For the Buttercream Icing:
(for 24 cupcakes or two layer round cake or a flat cake)

Beat (about) 3/4 of a bag of confectioner's sugar
and a stick of softened butter together until fluffy.
Sorry, I don't really measure my ingredients unless I have to.
I just like to eyeball most of the time.
Can add about half a stick of softened cream cheese.
(this is optional but is a great idea)

Fold in about half a cup of chopped strawberries.
Careful not to put too much strawberries because
strawberries "weep" (for lack of term)
when chopped and then makes the frosting runny.

That's exactly what happened with these ones I made here.
The frosting turned out a little thin because
I put in a little too much chopped strawberries.
This is what happens when you don't measure,
good thing I didn't put in waaaay to much.

In a way, I kind of like the effect of the frosting draping down
the sides of the cupcakes, don't you?
It's a good justification!

If you have extra frosting save it for DIPS for fresh strawberries....
Mmmmm! Even YUMMY-ER!!

****************************************