Cassava and Almond Meal Cake

In my humble opinion, cassava cake is a very forgiving recipe. I have tasted so many different cassava cake, cooked in so many different ways. Others, they add creamed corn, grated coconut, macapuno strips, even whole corn kernel (a friend told me she had that already).

It just so happened we have lots of almond meal and I didn't know what to do with it. I have searched for recipes on the net, and I have baked 3 different cakes using almond meal, and I didn't like them that much. And so I thought, why not try incorporating almond meal with the cassava cake. And this is the result of my experiment. I must say, it tastes like another kakanin, Suman na kamoteng kahoy.

Ingredients:

2 packages of frozen cassava (thawed)

1 can coconut milk/cream

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup almond meal

1/2 soft pack brown sugar

1/2 cup condensed milk

Toppings:

3 eggs

1 cup coconut milk/cream

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup condensed milk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 180 C.

Mix all the ingredients thoroughly. Pour in a big rectangular baking dish approximately 34 cm by 20 cm.

Bake for about 30 minutes or until a bit firm to the touch.

For the toppings, mix all the ingredients with a whisk.

Take the cake out of the oven and pour the topping on top.

Put the cake back inside the oven and bake for a further 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Cool it down before eating, or if you're in a hurry like me, eat it right away.. lol.

If you find it a bit hard when it's been in your fridge for a few days (if it lasts that long), put it in the microwave for a few seconds.

Mango Cake

I always bake this cake whenever it's my hubby's birthday. It's very light and it's not very sweet, and that's the way we like our cakes. I got this cake from a recipe book I bought from the Philippines more than 20 years ago. If you can see the book, it has lots of samples. Over the years I have been baking it, the batter of the cake has been spilling on it, and dried out, hence the sample ;)

Ingredients:

10 - 12 egg whites (depending on the size of the eggs)

3/4 cup caster sugar

10 - 12 egg yolks

1/4 cup water

1 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup caster sugar

2 cups sifted self raising flour

Directions:

1. Beat egg whites until foamy.
2. Gradually add the first 3/4 cup sugar, continue beating until very stiff but not dry.
3. Set aside
4. Beat egg yolks with water and vanilla until creamy.
5. Gradually add the rest of the sugar, beating well until thick and lemon coloured.
6. Fold egg yolks alternately with flour into egg whites.
7. Pour in 2 20 inch square or round pan. Or alternatively, you can bake it in a big square pan or round pan. I usually bake it separately so that I don't have to cut it in the middle later.
8. Bake at 170 C for 20 - 25 minutes. Cool.

Icing:

4 ripe mangoes, peeled and sliced

whipped cream. I used 600 ml cream

Slather generous amount of whipped cream on the first cake. Then arrange some mango slices on top. If you baked it in one big tin, split the cake in the middle.

Put some more whipped cream on the bottom of the other cake before putting it on top of the first cake.

Then, put some more whipped cream on top of the second cake (which is now sitting on top of the first cake) then arrange more mangoes on top. If you have left over whipped cream, cover the cake all over.

You can serve it right away, if you can't wait, or put it in the fridge for a few hours so that the cake will absorb the cream and the smell of the mangoes.

Okoy (vegetable patties)

I bought some mung bean sprouts the other day coz I wanted to cook some vegetable lumpia. But when I had a look at the freezer, no lumpia wrapper. So I did the next best thing, Okoy.

Lucky, I also have some pumpkin, so I combined the two together and made a good okoy. I have done this recipe before with all different kinds of vegetables. I used, zucchini, corn, carrots and with great success too. I think, it all comes down with the vinegar dipping sauce. But then again, my hubby does not eat them with vinegar so they must be good by themselves ;p (lucky I was able to enticed my boys to try vinegar dipping sauce, now they love it)

I had some left over roast pork from last night, the okoy below have pork. I must admit, I like the one without pork better. It's a good thing, Kim liked the one with pork.





Ingredients:

100 grams of mung bean sprouts, cleaned thoroughly
100 grams of pumpkin, grated
1 large onion, chopped finely
salt and pepper
1 cup of self raising flour
1 cup of cornflour
2 eggs
3/4 - 1 cup of water
oil for frying.


Directions:

Combined the flours in a mixing bowl.
Add enough water to make a good consistency.
Add the eggs and seasonings.
Put the mung bean sprouts, pumpkin and onions.
Mix thoroughly.

1. Heat oil in a frying pan.
2. Spoon the mixture onto the hot oil and flatten the mixture a bit.
3. Do not clutter the pan, so that the okoy won't be ruined.
4. Watch them so that they won't burn. Turn them over when they turn brown but not burnt
   
5. Repeat until all the mixture is cooked.

For the sauce:

Combine
vinegar
salt
pepper
freshly crushed garlic
chili (as many as you can take)

Chicken Arrozcaldo (Lelut manuk)

I am posting this dish because my son Kim really likes this dish. He wants to learn how to cook it so that when he goes to Europe he will have a diet of Arrozcaldo :)

I remember when I was a young girl growing up in the Philippines, whenever one feels under the weather, this dish is the one that will cure everything. This is our answer to every sickness we feel. And sometimes, if we don't have chicken to put in there, we just put a simple egg. Of course, chicken is a lot tastier, but hey, it does the trick.

Ingredients:

1/2 kilo of chicken (thigh fillets are the best if using chicken without bones, but preferably wings because it's a lot tastier) chopped into bite size pieces
2 tbsp cooking oil
1 head of garlic, minced finely
1 medium onion, chopped finely
1 tsp of minced ginger
1 - 2 tsp of fish sauce (salt can be used but does not taste as good as fish sauce)
1 cup raw rice (rinsed)
pepper
spring onions, sliced thinly
calamansi or lemon


Directions:

1. Heat oil in a saucepan.
2. Add the minced garlic, cook until brown. Remove from the pan to be used as toppings later.
3. Add the onions, cook until translucent.
4. Add the ginger, stir.
5. Add the chicken, and mix thoroughly.
6. Add the fish sauce.
7. Put the rice in and mix thoroughly again.
8. Add water. Make sure it covers all the rice and chicken.
9. Keep stirring until the chicken and rice are cook and tender. Keep adding water if you think it's getting dry.
   
10. Check for seasoning.
11. Then serve with the fried garlic, spring onions and some calamansi or lemon, pepper and extra fish sauce. Enjoy
    

Sweet and Sour Chicken

I have posted Sweet and Sour Pork already, but I thought this sweet and sour chicken is a lot simpler. It's also a lot quicker to cook, in my opinion.

I was craving for some chicken necks, don't know why, I guess it's because I saw them at Coles Supermarket the last time I was there. So I sent the hubby to buy some. And he came home with marinated chicken thigh fillets. He said the butcher didn't have any chicken necks. I wonder what they did with them? Hmmm ... Anyway, I didn't really want to bake the chicken thigh fillets, so I thought I better make a sweet and sour out of them.




I must admit, it turned out really well, considering they have been marinated in some sort of sweet chili garlic God knows what else. The hubby was quite pleased with the outcome as well. He was quite proud of himself in buying the chicken thigh fillets.

Ingredients:

4 chicken thigh fillets, cut bite size
4 tbsp of cornflour
salt and pepper for seasoning
2 tbsp cooking oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced finely
1 medium onion, chopped finely
1 capsicum (red or green) sliced
2 medium carrots, cut round
1 can of pineapple, cut into bite size pieces

Sweet and Sour Sauce (mix these ingredients thoroughly)

1/4 vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp salt or thereabouts


Directions:

1. Mix the cornflour and chicken and season with salt and pepper.
2. Heat the oil in a wok then fry the chicken, until slightly cook. Remove the chicken from the wok and put on a plate with absorbent paper.
3. Cook the garlic in the remaining oil (add some more oil if necessary).
4. When the garlic is brown, add the onions. Cook the onions until translucent.
5. Add the carrots, capsicum and pineapple pieces.
6. Cook until carrots are tender.
7. Return the fried chicken and add the mixed sweet and sour sauce.
8. Keep stirring until it boils, then thicken with cornflour if you desire.
9. Serve with rice. Enjoy.

Ginisang Munggo

Everybody has their own way of cooking ginisang munggo. I've always thought that in Pampanga, our town in the Philippines, they always processed their munggo so that it's very smooth. And since we didn't have food processor or blender, we used to press the cooked munggo in a slotted bilao we called bitse. Excuse the words, I don't know what they're called in English. lol

Well, apparently, not everyone in Pampanga processed their munggo. I guess, it's only us .. lol

I have always processed my munggo, and that's the only way my husband and children know how to eat it. If they see munggo and it's not processed, they won't eat it. I must admit, I am not used in eating it that way too, so I usually stay away from it when it's not processed. I have served this munggo with fried Ling. In the tagalog region, they usually serve it with paksiw na isda , but if we have to serve something with munggo it's always fried fish, preferably galunggong.




Ingredients:

1 cup of munggo beans

2 tbsp oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, chopped finely
1 tomato, chopped finely (optional)
1 - 2 tbsp of fish sauce
2 sticks of celery, chopped thinly and diagonally. Add the celery leaves if they're there.
bunch of spinach leaves (in my case, i put silver beet from the garden), washed thoroughly

Directions:

Boil 3 cups of water. When the water is boiling, add the dried munggo beans. Cook until it's very soft. About half an hour to 45 minutes. Keep stirring it, while cooking otherwise it might burn. When the munggo is soft, put it in a blender. I use a hand-held blender and blend it directly in the pot.

1. Saute garlic in the oil until slightly brown.
2. Add the onions, cook until translucent.
3. Add the tomatoes, and cook for another minute.
4. Season with fish sauce.
5. Add the celery pieces and cook further until the celery is slightly soft.
6. Add the processed munggo. Let it boil.
7. Add the spinach or silverbeet. Cook until the leaves are soft.
8. Serve with rice and your preferred fried fish. Or you can also serve pork chops if you're feeling generous.

When I was still in the Philippines, we used to put pumpkin flowers and the young leaves of the pumpkin. When I have zucchini flowers, I put them too. Other people, they use bagoong to season the munggo, but since my family do not eat bagoong, I use fish sauce. And others they put pork with it too. If you want to incorporate pork, saute the thinly sliced pork after putting the tomatoes. Cook the pork until it's tender, then proceed as above.

Spaghetti with Prawns and fresh tomatoes and chili

I am not usually fond of pasta dishes. The only way I eat it is when I cook it with seafood, mainly prawns and I will make it spicy so that it's palatable for me. Of course, you can always omit the chili. I omit the chili when I cook this for the family, they don't like it spicy. So I separate some of the tomato mixture for me and then I add the chili.




Ingredients:

1 500 grams of spaghetti, cook as per direction

2 tbsp of olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, chopped finely
4 - 5 medium ripe tomatoes, chopped
500 grams of prawns, shelled and deveined
salt and pepper to taste
chili (optional) chopped finely


Directions:

1. Saute garlic in oil until fragrant.
2. Add the onions and stir until translucent.
3. Add the tomatoes. Cook the tomatoes for about 2 minutes.
4. Season with salt and pepper.
5. If you're adding the chili, mix it now.
6. Add the prawns, and stir thoroughly.
7. Prawns are cooked when they changed in colour.
8. Remove from heat and mix the cooked spaghetti.

Serve with your favourite wine. I like banrock crimson cabernet. Cheers!