#276_Ramen Noodles/Pancit Ramen

This is not just Ramen Noodles...... it's gourmet Ramen noodles!

That's right! you can turn this regular 10-cents-a-pack noodles
into a not-so-boring-to-eat noodles.
And the best part of this is that you can
make this dish in under 30 minutes.

My secret of quick cooking is using rotisserie chicken from Costco and frozen veggies. I always make sure I have some frozen veggies such as the one pictured above or stir fry veggies. This will eliminate chopping or slicing different kinds of veggies, but as I mentioned in one of my posts, nothing's better than fresh vegetables. If you have plenty of time and don't mind peeling, slicing and chopping vegetables, that's better. If pressed with time though, frozen veggies and store-bought cooked chicken will be your best friends.

This recipe takes the same procedure as making most kinds of pancit (noodles) such as pancit canton or pancit bihon. The main difference is that the ingredients here do not use liquid to cook in except the liquid from the patis or soy sauce.

The ingredients below are just approximate as I just eye ball everything when I make this.The only accurate thing here is the 5 packages of noodles. You can't go wrong with this dish. This is one of those simple and super easy dishes to make. BTW, I picked up this idea of cooking Ramen Noodles this way from a dear friend of mine, Aida who is a very creative cook herself.

Here's the recipe:
5 packages of Chicken flavor Ramen noodles
Canola oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups cooked chicken
1/2 a head of cabbage, sliced
2 medium size carrots, julienned
Green beans, cut french style
Patis (fish sauce) or soy sauce

Procedure:
1) Heat some canola oil in a wok or large saute pan and saute the garlic until fragrant.
2) Stir in onions and continue to saute until onions are limp.
3) Stir in the cooked chicken, saute for a few minutes then add in the vegetables.
4) Add some soy sauce or patis (fish sauce). Continue to saute until the vegetables are halfway done then stir in the blanched noodles.
5) Stir until everything is well blended together.

How to blanch the noodles:

Bring about 2 cups of water to a boil with 2 envelopes of bouillon powder which is included in the noodle package. Drop the noodles in the boiling broth. As soon as the noodles become soft take them out with a slotted spoon and stir them in with the vegetable/meat stir fry.

Ramen noodles with chicken.

Ramen Noodles with Shrimps.

ENJOY!!

Note from MaMely:
I used some anatto oil (achuete) in the stir fry. To make anatto oil, click here.

#275_Sally's Prize-Winning White Beans Chicken Chili

Updated: 2-7-11

White Beans Chicken Chili
in a crock pot.

This fantastic Chili recipe was given to me by my

step daughter, Sally which is her prize-winning recipe.
Her husband's family back in Missouri have Chili Cook Offs annually
where Sally entered this recipe one year and garnered 1st prize.
Congratulations, Sally and thank you for sharing it with me.

I made this again yesterday and everybody liked it,
including the ones who said didn't care for beans.
It is really that delish!!

Here's the recipe with a little bit of modification on the procedure:

Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts, cubed
1 small onion, diced
3-4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
salt to taste

4 cans White Northern Beans
16 oz. sour cream (reduced fat)
16 oz. Monterey Jack cheese, grated
1 can Rotel tomatoes ( comes in original, mild or hot)
1 can cream of chicken soup
3-4 cups chicken broth (updated)

1) Prepare the chicken:

In a dutch oven or saute pan, heat some canola oil over medium heat. Saute garlic and onion until garlic turns fragrant (not brown) then stir in the cubed chicken. Continue to saute until the chicken renders its own fat, or until the chicken pieces are no longer pink. This will take about 5 minutes. Sprinkle with salt.
2) Cook in Crock Pot:
Transfer the sauteed chicken into a slow cooker pot or crock pot and stir in the rest of the ingredients (save some of the Monterey Jack cheese for garnish). Put lid on and cook on "medium" heat for about 6-8 hours stirring occasionally. Add in more chicken broth if necessary.

3)To serve:
Spoon soup in individual bowls and top with one of these: (optional)

Grated Montery Jack cheese
Guacamole
Cooked chopped bacon
Sliced green onions
Or whatever you like.

ENJOY!!

Note from MaMely:
Here's another way to prepare the chicken:
Put the cubed chicken in a pot and cover with water. Cook over medium high heat skimming off fat. When there are no more scums in the broth, transfer the chicken in the crock pot, then pour in the broth through a sieve, so you'll have a clear broth. This way you don't need to use the canned broth.

#274_Garlic Butter & Garlic Bread

How to make your own Garlic Butter

Home made Garlic Butter

Ingredients for Garlic Butter
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
5 cloves garlic, finely grated
1 tsp dried parsley
1/3 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Mix all ingredients until well blended and smooth then
store in the fridge in plastic containers until ready to use.



Microplane makes it so easy to achieve perfect finely grated garlic
to use in the garlic butter mixture

To make Garlic Bread:
Slice up some French bread, spread some Garlic Butter
on both sides of of bread,
arrange them on an aluminum or parchment paper lined cookie sheet
and bake in a pre heated 375 degrees oven
until they turn light brown and butter is melted, approximately 5 minutes.

#272_Quick Puto

Puto just out of the steamer.

If you're craving for Puto and don't have access
to the real thing, here's one alternative....
Bisquick.

Puto topped with raspberry jam....
this is worth trying...its good!!

Whenever I make hubby some pancakes,
usually on Saturday mornings,
I'd set aside a cup or so of the pancake batter,
add some sugar and make myself some puto.

Since I only make just a few for myself
it is so convenient to use the rice cooker to steam them.

To make a bigger batch, follow the recipe for pancakes
on the back of the package, then add 1 cup of sugar.
You might want to use a bigger steamer.

Here's the Bisquick Puto recipe:
2 cups Bisquick pancake mix
1 cup whole milk
2 large eggs
1 cup white sugar

Mix everything in a bowl, (you can add food coloring if desired)
then spoon mixture into puto molds (about 2/3 full)
and steam for 10-12 minutes.
ENJOY!!

These are Puto flavored with ube, mango and pandan
McCormick artificial flavoring.

Note from MaMely:
Just grease Puto molds once. You don't need to grease them each time you fill them with batter.

#271_Tilapia in Sweet & Sour Sauce

This Sweet and Sour Tilapia Fish recipe
beats Rachel Ray's 30-minute Meal because I made this dish
in less than 30 minutes and so can you.
This dish is real simple and easy to make and yet it is super delish!

A friend, Yaye, served this at her birthday party recently.
I loved it so much that I asked her how she made it.
She told me how and even gave me her secret ingredient!
I also asked her permission if I can post the recipe here
and of course she is kind enough to let me.

The key here to be able prepare this dish so quick is that
I used this already breaded Tilapia
from Costco which is truly a super time saver!

Tilapia fillets bake in their frozen state for 18 minutes.
(see cooking directions on back of package)

Okay, set your timer and start cooking.
See if you can beat the record...

While the fish are baking, make the Sweet and Sour Sauce:

Slice half an onion into chunks
slice 2 medium carrots thinly
jullienne a piece of ginger (slice like matchsticks)

(I already have some sliced red bell pepper ready in the freezer)

Heat some canola oil in a saute pan and saute the onion until they are almost limp, followed by carrots, ginger, pineapple chunks and red bell pepper and do a quick stir fry. Season with 2 tsp. patis, then add 1 Tbp. apple cider vinegar and 2 cups of lumpia dipping sauce (shhhh, lumpia or egg roll dipping sauce is the secret ingredient. My favorite brand is "Pantai"). Let it cook for just a minute and voila!! you have an awesome Sweet and Sour Sauce.

Arrange the baked fish in a serving platter
and top them with the Sweet and Sour Sauce.

Very good on white steamed rice.

Light and flaky tilapia...oh, so Delisioso!

Notes from MaMely:
1) When I made this dish, I just eye-balled the ingredients. The measurements listed are just approximate for your guidelines. On the egg roll dipping sauce, you can use less or more.....if you use too much of it though, you'll have too sweet sauce, so kind of experiment with it.
2) This sauce can be used to make Sweet & Sour Pork, Sweet & Sour Chicken, Sweet & Sour Meatballs and Sweet & Sour anything.
3) If you don't have access to the store-bought lumpia dipping sauce you can make the sauce from the Sweet and Sour Meatballs recipe #35, click here.

#269_Birthday Cake for Yaye

A birthday cake for my friend, Yaye.

The first tier has 3 layers of carrot cake filled with cream cheese frosting.
The second tier is 3 layers of Banana-Chocolate cake, also filled
with cream cheese frosting, then wrapped with
white and purple chocolate picket fence
which are absolutely edible.

This is just my second "special occasion" cake to make.
I'm glad the birthday girl liked it and everybody at the party seemed to enjoy it.

#267_My New Puto Bumbong Steamer

I bought this puto bumbong steamer around Christmas time

so I considered it as a Christmas present to myself.

People always talk about Puto bumbong around Christmas time, even Leah Salonga mentions "puto bumbong" in one of her Christmas songs. I came from Pangasinan which is considered the puto capital of the Philippines, (if there's such a thing), but unfortunately Puto Bumbong is not one of the many Puto varieties people make in that province. I've never sampled it in my whole entire life, so whenever i hear the word "Puto Bumbong", I wonder how it tastes like and how it's made, but never had any desire to learn how to make it until I purchased this odd-looking gadget. Although I didn't have a single clue on how to make it, I knew I can find out through the cyberspace and gosh, was I right! There's plenty of sources floating around out there.

I saw this particular recipe and procedure from YouTube

Soak 1 cup black rice and 2 cups glutinous rice in water with salt overnight then grind in a blender. Drain liquid using a cheesecloth.

this is how it looks after liquid has been extracted from the ground rice, the mixture became a solid mass.

to break them up, pass the mixture, little at a time, through a sieve or a grater.

The result will be this dry, powdery rice mixture called "galapong".
Ready to make the Puto Bumbong.

I followed all the instructions on how to use the steamer, wrapping the bamboo tubes or "bumbong" with some cloth to protect my fingers from getting burned, then I anxiously filled them with the "galapong". The water in the steamer was steaming. I turned the heat down so the water will just be gently boiling, I was ready!!! I then put the bamboo tubes in place.....anxiety, anxiety, yup my anxiety was building up!! Then something went awry: water leaked from around the seams of the steamer!!! water was all over the stove top. But in spite of the water leaking out from the steamer I was so determined to continued to steam the puto, wiping off the water on the stove as water kept coming out. From the instructions I got, the puto is supposed to steam in just a few minutes, but 15 minutes went by, then 30 minutes... only one tube produced a tiny steamed puto. I took this tiny puto onto a waiting piece of banana leaf sitting on the counter, slathered it with some butter as per instruction, and then sprinkled some grated coconuts and turbenado sugar.

I was not impressed by the taste at all. The puto itself was bland. No wonder from the video I watched on YouTube, the makers had to put all of those toppings on them.

At least now,I know how Puto Bumbong is made.

#265_Ube Mochico Bibingka

Here's another super easy recipe idea...
very similar to the Mochico Bibingka recipe #53 click here,
with the addition of Ube Powder.

Ingredients:
1 lb. glutinous rice flour (mochico is a brand)
1 can coconut cream
1 cup sugar
1 packet ube powder (purple yam powder)
1-1/2 cup water
1 jar macapuno
3 eggs, slightly beaten

Mix everything together then pour in a 9x13 greased baking pan and bake for 1 hour in a 350 degrees oven. If using non-stick or glass pan, bake in 325 degrees oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Let cool before slicing.
ENJOY!!

Note from MaMely:
When I made this batch I reduced the sugar to 1/2 cup, (sometimes I'm concerned about my sugar intake) but it was not a good idea, so I sprinkled some turbinado sugar on top of the baked bibingka and returned it in the oven to broil for a few minutes. I suggest to use the whole cup of sugar and not sprinkle sugar on top.

#264_Mango Upside Down Cake

Mango Upside Down Cake

I had used white cake mix out of the box to make this cake before I perfected making chiffon cake. The difference is huge not only in flavor, but also in texture. So if you want a quality upside down cake I highly recommend using any chiffon cake recipe you are already comfortable making, but if you don't have a recipe yet, here's a tried and true one: #210_Orange Chiffon Cake, click here.

Please don't be alarmed by the length of the recipe as I was. When I first saw the recipe from joyofbaking.com I thought it was too complicated so I didn't try making it for a while, then one day I got braved and decided to give it a try. It came out good the very first time. The second time I made it, the middle of the cake caved in. I know, it was discouraging, but because I knew how it turned out the first time, that experience didn't stop me from trying it again. The next hundred times after that were good. The only challenge in making chiffon cake is making meringue, which is quite tricky and requires a little practice, so don't give up if it didn't turn out good the first time; read up on making meringue if you're making it the very first time. Once perfected that process, making chiffon cake becomes easier.

This recipe makes three 8-inch round cakes or if you just want to make one or two of these, use the remaining batter to make Mamon, click here for the recipe,
Crema de Fruta or other cakes.

For 3 cakes using 8 inch round pans:

1/2 sticks butter per pan, melted
1/2 cups dark brown sugar per pan
2 fresh mangoes per pan, sliced or diced (or more, the better)
1 recipe of Orange Chiffon Cake, (click here for the recipe)

Pour melted butter in pans and evenly spread sugar over butter. Arrange sliced mangoes on top of sugar then pour the chiffon cake batter evenly between the 3 pans. Bake in a pre-heated 350 degrees oven for about 25-35 minutes or until cake is done.
To check if cake is done, insert a toothpick in the middle of the cake, if it comes out clean, then it is done. Avoid over baking it.
Let cake cool completely before inverting them onto serving plates.

Note from MaMely:If you want thicker cake, you can use two 9-inch pans, 3 inches high, or you can experiment with different pan sizes.

#263_Melting Moments Cookies with a Twist

Almond Melting Moments Cookies

These cookies live up to their name as they literally melt in your mouth.
They are super easy to make and the recipe calls for just a few ingredients.
I got the recipe from my favorite site,
http://www.joyofbaking.com/MeltingMoments.html

In the original recipe, each cookie is rolled in powdered sugar. I omitted that procedure, instead I topped each cookie with a slice of almond.

Here's how I did it:

After mixing the dough, I formed them into 1 inch balls.

While the dough was still soft, I made slight indentations on each cookie
then placed a slice of almond on top.
I put them in the fridge for at least 3o minutes before
baking them in a pre-heated 350 degrees oven for 12 minutes.

Let them cool on wire racks.
Enjoy!!

Note from MaMely:
You can substitute almond extract for the vanilla extract, but use a little less.