Japanese Sweet Potato Bread

Does peri menopause affect our lives at some point? I believe so.. and its happening to me. I suddenly find myself into a lot of sleepless nights, headache and my brain keeps working. You know what? it brought a new job to me, I resigned from the previous one and here I am about to start in a new environment. Yes, Im turning 50, I am going to be a golden woman and I just signed a contract for a new job.. can you believe that!!! 

After the signing, I leisurely walk and enjoy the night then I treat myself to a Thai Beef Bowl and Thai Milk Tea. They're both good. Yummy!

Here is what I brought for you bloggers. Enjoy!

I swear this is the simplest way of making your own bread at home and you know it has sweet potato, yes, sweet potato it is ! I always wanted to make my own bread and its a dream come true. Nowadays we rarely buy bread. I prepare the dough before going to bed and by next morning we have 2 big loaves of bread on our table, and its wonderful! That kind of a feeling when you make your own bread is so irreplaceable, I always look forward to do it.

Printable Recipe
Sweet Potato Bread

Ingredients:

3 1/2 cups bread flour

3/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1 envelope rapid rise yeast

1 cup mashed Japanese sweet potato 

2/3 cup milk

1/4 cup honey

2 tbsp butter

2 eggs

Direction:

Set aside 3/4 cup of bread flour. 

In a large mixer bowl, combine the rest of the flour together with salt, yeast,  and nutmeg.

Combine mashed sweet potato, milk, honey and butter. 

Microwave the mixture for 1 min and 20 seconds or to the point that its hot but you can still manage to stick your index finger..yeas, that hot.

Add this mixture to the flour mixture and beat using dough hook for 2 minutes.

Add the eggs and beat again for 2 minutes

Add the remaining flour to make a soft dough. Beat for 12 to 15 minutes.
Transfer to a greased bowl. Cover and let it rise for 90 minutes.

After 90 minutes, shape the dough into 2 loaves and placed in greased pans. Let it rise.

Bake in a pre-heated 350 oven or 180 for 35 minutes.

Cover the top with foil after 25 minutes to prevent from over browning.

Continue baking for 10 minutes.

Remove from pans and brush with melted butter if desired.

Ahhh... thats why I love bread..you can just eat it on its own. These loaves wont even last until tomorrow. As long as my family want, I will make it.

Japanese sweet potato is the best for making this bread. Theyre sweet and light, it makes the bread soft and moist.

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Pineapple Upside-Down Evap Milk Cake

Happy Valentines to all the bloggers around the globe. If you are turning 50 this year like me, then this is our comfort cake. Late at night when peri menopause kicks in, you got to get up and bake!!!

An upside-down cake is a cake that is baked in a single pan with its toppings at the bottom of the pan, hence “upside-down”. Then, when removed from the oven, the upside-down preparation is de-panned onto a serving plate, thus righting it, and serving it right-side up. Usually chopped or sliced fruits — such as apples, cherries, peaches, or pineapples — butter, and sugar are placed on the bottom of the pan before the batter is poured in, so that they form a baked-on topping after the cake is inverted.Traditional upside-down preparations include the American pineapple upside-down cake, the French Tarte Tatin, and the Brazilian or Portuguese Bolo de ananas. ( Thanks to Wiki ) 

I have this craving for Pineapple Upside-Down Cake so bad. I am not feeling well for the past weeks and you know when you are sick, you wanted to eat something that will make you feel better...and that's what happened to me. I cant remember the last time I made this cake. Although its a personal favorite, I don't make this often simply because I am the only fan in our home. But it changed since yesterday night, my children has different reaction. Oh they love this cake ! Yes, Now I am not the only fan, there's three of us and the sad part is my craving not satisfied because the cake is finished at once. I will be baking again today!

With this cake, Im such a failure with its original batter- the combination of egg yolk mixture with the beaten egg white. I dont know why I cant get the right consistency and texture and it was so frustrating then. I found an option, I apply the same ingredients and procedure just like with my Evap Milk Soft Cheesy Bars ( without the cheese this time ) and it was great. 

Printable Recipe
Pineapple Upside-Down Evap Milk Cake

For the syrup:

1/2 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
pineapple slices
cherries
cake pan of your choice, butter or spray with a non stick vegetable oil
Direction:
Place butter and sugar in a sauce pan and stir over medium heat until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved. Continue cooking without stirring until bubbles just start to appear around the outside edges of the mixture ( at this point, its caramelized ). Then remove from heat and pour into the prepared cake pan. Arrange the fresh pineapple and cherries according to your preference. Set aside and proceed to make your cake batter.
For the cake:

3 eggs

1/2 cup caster sugar

3/4 cup evaporated milk ( I use Milkmaid )

1/3 cup olive oil

1/3 cup sunflower oil

1 tsp vanilla

3 tbsp pineapple juice

1 1/2 cup self raising flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Direction:

Sift flour, salt and baking powder. Set aside

Beat eggs and sugar for 7 to 8 minutes

Add milk, oil and vanilla.

Beat to low speed until smooth.
Add vanilla and pineapple juice

Add flour carefully mixing well until incorporated

Transfer to the baking pan with syrup.

Bake for 50 minutes at 350 degrees F or 180 degress C.

Rest for about 3 minutes then run a sharp knife around the edge of the pan.

Invert the cake onto your serving plate. Enjoy!

My heart of cake is broken but my tummy is full. If there's such thing as comfort food, then Pineapple Upside Down cake is my comfort cake.

You see that, the top is buttery and crusty.. this is such a comfort cake for anyone going 50 like me.. I bet you will agree with me. How come this pineapple is so good in a cake..yum!!!

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Filipino Champurrado

Champurrado is a chocolate-based atole, a warm and thick Mexican drink,based on masa(hominy flour), piloncillo,water or milk and occasionally containing cinnamon, anise seed and or vanilla bean.Atole drinks are whipped up using a wooden whisk called a molinillo (or, a blender).The whisk is rolled between the palms of the hands, then moved back and forth in the mixture until it is aerated and frothy.Champurrado is traditionally served with churros in the morning as a simple breakfast or as a late afternoon snack. Champurrado is also very popular during Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) and at Las Posadas (the Christmas Season) where it is served alongside tamales. An instant mix for champurrado is available in Mexican grocery stores. Champurrado may also be made with alcohol.

Tsampurado (Spanish: champurrado) is a sweet chocolate rice porridge in Philippine cuisine. It is traditionally made by boiling sticky rice with cocoa powder, giving it a distinctly brown color and usually with milk and sugar to make it taste sweeter. However, dry tsampurado mixes are prepared by just adding boiling water. It can be served hot or cold and with milk and sugar to taste. It is served usually at breakfast and sometimes together with salty dried fish locally known as tuyo.The pudding becomes very thick and the lighter milk helps to "loosen" it. It's almost like eating "chocolate oatmeal". It can be eaten as a snack or dessert as well.

Its history can be traced back from Mexico. During the galleon trade between Mexico and the Philippines, there were Mexican traders who stayed in the Philippines and brought with them the knowledge of making tsampurado (this is also the reason why there is Tuba in Mexico). Through the years, the recipe changed; Filipinos eventually found ways to make the Mexican champurrado a Philippine tsampurado by adding rice.

As I write my blog, I cant help from smiling cause the history is so amazing. It was a Mexican food handed down to us by the Spaniards and since then we embraced it and adapted to our culture and taste. We wanted simplicity, sweetness and chaos in our palate. Instead of the natural warm, thick drink..it became a porridge to us and to make it absurd.. we love Champorado with our Fried Tuyo or Dried Fish. This tandem is out of this world... chocolatey, milky, sweet and yet eaten with fried, dried kinda salty fish.. I know... I know... dont give me the odd look...its true... and we like it, we enjoy it and in fact Champorado is part of every Filipino's childhood. Becoming a mom, I brought Champorado in my own kitchen but this time with a twist and it has to be dark, richer..not so sweet but with lots of milk and pure cocoa.Yes, we use Tableya... a molded grounded pure cocoa which back in the old days were homemade. Nowadays, we can buy it from the supermarket but there are provinces that make pure cocoa and you can just buy them in a local store..theres not a name nor a tag... these Tablea comes in a white package and wrapped in a transparent plastic... pure simplicity at its best... homemade using hands and molder although I am not sure if they use a modern machine to grind cocoa after drying. One of my co-workers recently went home to her province and coming back she brought some Tableyas for me. It got me so excited and I ended up writing and cooking our version of Filipino Champorado.

Printable Recipe
Filipino Champurrado
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup glutinous rice
1 3/4 cup sugar
15 cups of water and add 1 cup or two in the end but it depends upon the desired consistency.
6-10 pcs cacao or tablea, use a kitchen knife to cut and turn them into crumbs.
You can add them just the way they are cause they melts but I somehow prefer to add them in crumbs because the texture and taste of my champorado is better and creamier.
a can of evaporated milk
some dried fried fish
Direction:
Put glutinous rice in a saucepan, wash and add 15 cups of water.
Proceed to cook, let it boil then turn the heat to a medium fire.
The technique is to cook the glutinous and let them pop out.
Once it has that kind of texture, add the tablea crumbs and sugar.
Keep on stirring and dont forget to turn the fire in simmering mode.
Stir very often while the mixture is simmering and you will see the mixture is getting thicker.
Once you get the desired thickness then you can turn off the fire.
Note: A good champorado is thick because milk plays a big part to make a very delicious bowl of champorado. We use evaporated milk to break the thickness...and add more until the desired consistency comes out.. When making Champorado, theres no exact measurement really, it depends upon your taste and how you want it... you just have to use a very good Tablea and dont scrimp..in my case, I always add 10 pcs and the result is gloriously wonderful!

Its my desired thickness and I prefer to add 10 pcs of pure Cacao Tablea all the time. My champorado is richer, darker and honestly very delicious..

Filipino Champorado is suppose to be thick...yes, thickened it just the way you like it cause you will make the most powerful combination on earth.. the taste of cacao and milk,..add creamy evaporated milk, the more, the better.

Oh yes..its fine..it wont kill you..dont be afraid..I tell you its the most delicious Filipino porridge ever..we want it for breakfast, snack, dessert and even at midnight...yes, my favorite midnight snack...the most comforting Filipino food ever!

Dont be surprised, dont be alarmed... it will stir your curiosity...it will make you say...eeeewww, what was that? but keep going, go ahead.. try it. I myself, can not understand why this lowly fried fish is such a good companion for Champorado..

Yes, here they are...the most historical tandem in our Filipino Food history where it fully represents our fondness for chaos in our palate..sweet, salty, creamy, dark, very rich chocolate taste.... Hmmmm...

Oh I'm proud of these dark babies, we adapted and in the end we make our own ..very rich in taste and history... its a family, a celebration...lots of memories and a solid foundation of who we are.. we have history... good or bad... dark or light but in the end the goodness is born and reborn.  Lets eat, lets giggle and lets be merry ..Happy Eating!

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Filipino Chop Suey

Thank you Andrea of Scraptastic Saturday for the feature of my Kare-Kareng Pata

Chop suey (/ˈtʃɒpˈsuːi/) is a dish in American Chinese cuisine and other forms of overseas Chinese cuisine, consisting of meat (often chicken, fish, beef, shrimp, or pork) and eggs, cooked quickly with vegetables such as bean sprouts, cabbage, and celery and bound in a starch-thickened sauce. It is typically served with rice but can become the Chinese-American form of chow mein with the addition of stir-fried noodles. Chop suey has become a prominent part of American Chinese cuisine, Filipino cuisine, Canadian Chinese cuisine, German Chinese cuisine, Indian Chinese cuisine, and Polynesian cuisine. In Chinese Indonesian cuisine it is known as cap cai  ("mixed vegetables") and mainly consists of vegetables.

Chop suey is widely believed to have been invented in America by Chinese Americans, but anthropologist E. N. Anderson, a scholar of Chinese food, traces the dish to tsap seui ( "miscellaneous leftovers"), common in Taishan (Toisan), a county in Guangdong province, the home of many early Chinese immigrants to the United States. Hong Kong doctor Li Shu-fan likewise reported that he knew it in Toisan in the 1890s. The long list of conflicting stories about the origin of chop suey is, in the words of food historian Alan Davidson, "a prime example of culinary mythology" and typical of popular foods.

One account claims that it was invented by Chinese American cooks working on the transcontinental railroad in the 19th century. Another tale is that it was created during Qing Dynasty premier Li Hongzhang's visit to the United States in 1896 by his chef, who tried to create a meal suitable for both Chinese and American palates. Another story is that Li wandered to a local Chinese restaurant after the hotel kitchen had closed, where the chef, embarrassed that he had nothing ready to offer, came up with the new dish using scraps of leftovers. Yet recent research by the scholar Renqui Yu led him to conclude that "no evidence can be found in available historical records to support the story that Li Hung Chang ate chop suey in the United States." Li brought three Chinese chefs with him, and would not have needed to eat in local restaurants or invent new dishes in any case. Yu speculates that shrewd Chinese American restaurant owners took advantage of the publicity surrounding his visit to promote chop suey as Li's favorite.

Another myth is that, in the 1860s, a Chinese restaurant cook in San Francisco was forced to serve something to drunken miners after hours, when he had no fresh food. To avoid a beating, the cook threw leftovers in a wok and served the miners who loved it and asked what dish is this—he replied "chopped sui". There is no good evidence for any of these stories.

Chop suey appears in an 1884 article in the Brooklyn Eagle, by Wong Chin Foo, "Chinese Cooking", which he says "may justly be so-called the 'national dish of China'." An 1888 description states it was a "staple dish for the Chinese gourmand is chow chop svey , a mixture of chickens' livers and gizzards, fungi, bamboo buds, pigs' tripe, and bean sprouts stewed with spices." In 1898, it is described as "A Hash of Pork, with Celery, Onions, Bean Sprouts, etc."

During his travels in the United States, Liang Qichao, a Guangdong (Canton) native, wrote in 1903 that there existed in the United States a food item called chop suey which was popularly served by Chinese restaurateurs, but which local Chinese people do not eat, because the cooking technique is "really awful".

In earlier periods of Chinese history, "chop suey" or "chap sui" in Cantonese, and "za sui", in Mandarin, has the different meaning of cooked animal offal or entrails. For example, in the classic novel Journey to the West (circa 1590), Sun Wukong tells a lion-monster in chapter 75: "When I passed through Guangzhou, I bought a pot for cooking za sui – so I'll savour your liver, entrails, and lungs." This may be the same as the "Chop Suey Kiang" found in 1898 New York. The term "za sui"  is found in newer Chinese-English dictionaries with both meanings listed: cooked entrails, and chop suey in the Western sense. ( Note: Thank you Wiki )

I hope the history didn't bore you at all and in case you are bored which is understandable, I am so sorry about it. Anyway, Chop suey is so delish and fresh, I remember when I dont feel well, I will crave  for it. The colors and combination of veggies is kinda therapeutic for me and upon eating, the smell and the freshness of ingredients makes me feel better. Well, I just presumed that Chop Suey was brought to us during the American Occupation in our country.

Printable Recipe

Chop Suey

Ingredients :
1/4 cup cooking oil

1 large onion cut into 4 slices (quarter cut)

5 cloves sliced garlic

200 grams cooked and sliced pork belly

200 grams cooked and sliced chicken breast

1 cup cut carrots
1 cup sliced young corn

1 cup cut green bean, about 2 inch

1 cup cabbage, sliced
1/2 cup green bell pepper, sliced or squared

1/2 cup red bell pepper, sliced or squared
2-3 cups broth
12-20 medium to large prawn
20 pcs boiled and peeled quail eggs
1/2 cup baked cashew nuts
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp oyster sauce 
1 tsp ground black pepper
3 tbsp cornstarch with 3 tbsp water, mixed
Direction:
In a pan or wok, add the oil and saute garlic and onion until the smell comes out.
Add the sliced cooked pork belly and cooked chicken breast, followed by carrots and young corn
Stir fry and cook for 1 minute, then add green bean and cabbage, stir fry for 1 minute.
Next add all the remaining veggies, stir fry for 1 minute.
Add the broth, 2 cups first followed by quail eggs, prawn and cashew. Let it boil, mix properly.
Add in all the seasonings, followed by the 3 tbsp cornstarch in 3 tbsp water.
The sauce should be nice and according to your preference. 
Serve immediately.

Yes, this dish is healthy and fresh and very easy to make because in a matter of 15 to 2o minutes, it is done and you can enjoy. You can play around with the veggies too, add anything you like, at least 3 to 5 kinds of veggies.

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