Funnel Cake

Ingredients

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1 cup water

½ tsp vanilla extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

¼ cup sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

Oil for deep-fat frying

Sugar

In a large bowl,  beat eggs.  Add milk, water and vanilla until well  blended.  Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt; beat into egg mixture until smooth.  In an electric skillet or deep-fat fryer,  heat oil.

Cover the bottom of a funnel spout with your finger;  ladle ½ cup of batter into the funnel.  Holding the funnel several inches above the oil,  release your finger and move the funnel in a spiral motion until all the batter is released (scraping with a rubber spatula if needed).

Fry for 2 minutes on each side or until golden brown.  Drain on paper towels.  Dust with sugar and serve warm.  Yield:  8 cakes

My daughter served us these for our weekend snacks.  Beats store-bought chips.  She had two types – the first one which are more cakey and the second one which are crunchy.  Both are good.  In addition to dusting the funnel cake with sugar,  we added condensed milk and grated Flat Tops chocolate.  Yummy! Completes your weekend.

Cucumber Iced Tea (with Yakult)

Ingredients

4 yellow (international blend) Lipton tea bags
1 cucumber, unpeeled, cut into1/8-inch slices
¼ cup honey

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup water
Yakult probiotic drink

Bring 2 cups of water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Remove the pan from the heat and add the tea bags and half the cucumber slices. Cover and let steep until cool, about 15 minutes. 

Meanwhile, combine the honey and ¼ cup hot water in a measuring cup and stir until the honey is dissolved.  To make the syrup: a) stir the sugar and water to dissolve the sugar crystals slightly, 2) allow the mixture to boil, and c) do not stir once the syrup is formed.

Fill a large glass pitcher with ice and a few cucumber slices. Strain the cooled tea into the pitcher and discard the steeped cucumbers. Add the honey mixture, syrup and 4 cups of water and stir to combine. Add Yakult. To serve, pour the tea into tall glasses full of ice. 

My daughter and son first tasted this when they were on vacation.  They said that there is a missing ingredient that would have duplicated what they originally had – mint leaves which would have been steeped together with the tea bags and cucumber slices.  But mint or no mint,  the cucumber drink was light and refreshing! 

Blame it on the a-alcohol: Fruit Cake

 Fruit cakes are fast disappearing from most Filipinos' Christmas menu. When I was younger, there was always a fruit cake given as a gift every Christmas. I guess that was because I still lived with my parents in the province and most of their friends hold the tradition of fruit cake gift giving during Christmas. So with this fond memory, I thought of baking fruit cake not without some trepidation though for the reason that my daughter, the Artist, does not like food with alcohol.

Key ingredients were rum, dried tropical fruits, raisins and nuts. It turned out okay but I couldn't taste the rum! Turned out, I was supposed to wrap the fruit cake in cheese cloth soaked in the strained rum. Hay naku. Have to look for a better recipe next time.

Pearly Shell: Kuhol and Halaan (Escargot and Clam)

Ginataang Kuhol (Escargot in Coconut Cream)

Halaan at Malunggay na Sabaw (Clam with Horseradish Leaves)

Seafood Pasta

Woke up early today to buy some shellfish for this post. There were plenty to choose from. But I chose clam (the hubby has been craving for halaan soup) and escargot. My husband cooked these three dishes. For Ginataang Kuhol: here are tips from the blog Bocaio "(1) before cooking, the snails should be left first in a pan full of water for a few days so they could spit out whatever they had previously eaten and (2) when they are ready to cook, the snails' bottoms are patted down with a heavy flat sandok (wooden spatula for serving rice) until they break; this is so the flesh comes out easily when cooked." After cleaning them, my husband cooked this in coconut milk and they were so delicious!

For the Halaan Sabaw: Clean the clams and boil in a pan of water with a piece of ginger. Discard all unopened ones. Bring the soup to a boil, then add malunggay leaves. Season with salt and ground pepper to taste. A very tasty soup indeed!

Finally, the Seafood Pasta: my husband cooked the seafood pasta with white wine, olive oil and of course, the clams. This is what the kids opted for, finding the escargot too tedious and exotic to eat.

Fluffy: Sponge Cake with Chocolate Frosting

Sponge cake is a cake based on flour, sugar, and eggs, sometimes leavened with baking powder. Derivatives of the basic sponge cake include the American chiffon cake and the Latin American tres leches cake. (Wikipedia)

This light, airy cake gets its texture from beaten egg whites, which are folded into a fluffy mixture of beaten egg yolks and sugar. They get their leavening power entirely from eggs. Sponge cakes are further characterized by the fact that they do not contain shortening of any kind. The cakes can be variously flavored with anything from lemon zest to ground almonds. (All Receipes)

My daughter and I set off to make a simple sponge cake.  Considering that we are amateur in baking,  this turned out to be one very good fluffy sponge cake! On her part,  my daughter thoroughly enjoyed making the chocolate frosting, chocolate balls and circles and sprinkling chocolate tidbits on top of the cake. 

Slice it Up!: Embutido Country Terrine

What is a terrine? To answer that, we must be able to define pate first. Pâté is generally used to refer to various elegant, well-seasoned ground-meat preparations. A pâté can be satiny-smooth and spreadable or, like country pâté, coarsely textured. It can be made from a finely ground or chunky mixture of meats (such as pork, veal, liver or ham), fish, poultry, game, vegetables, etc. Pâtés may be cooked in a crust, in which case they're referred to as pâté en croûte. They may also be cooked in a pork fat-lined container called a terrine (or any other similarly sized mold), in which case they're called pâté en terrine. Today the terms pate and terrine are often used interchangeably. From Epicurious. Com.

I got my inspiration for this week's theme from 80 Breakfasts' Country Terrine which was taken from Vogue Travel + Living. However, I used the ingredients of Embutido.

• ham
• ground lean pork
• grated cheese
• raisins
• pickles
• spanish paprika
• worcestershire sauce
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• onion peeled and chopped finely
• tomato catsup
• eggs
• breadcrumbs

1. In a bowl combine the chopped ham, ground pork, eggs, breadcrumbs, cheese, pickles, raisins, catsup, onion, paprika and worcestershire sauce. Season well.
2. Line a 30cm x 11 cm x 10 cm terrine with baking paper.
3. Spoon the mixture into the prepared terrine. Cover with baking paper. Wrap the whole terrine in aluminum foil.
4. Place the covered terrine in a roasting pan and pour warm water until halfway up the side of the terrine. Place in the oven and cook for 1 1/2 hours.
5. Remove from oven and set aside to cool. Slice, garnish and serve.

I ran out of vienna sausage and chorizo bilbao but you can include these too.  I like cooking the embutido using the terrine. The possibilities are many.  Bron Marshall's website narrates how she layered her Pork Terrine with small sliced red plums.  And once cooked, she garnished it with sage and brushed it with plum jam for that extra cooking in the oven until the top became golden.  Mine? I dressed it up with cheese sauce but three hungry kids can no longer wait for the camera. 

Over the Top: Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Open faced sandwich is my entry to this week's theme "over the top"of Lasang Pinoy Sundays. My topping consists of bacon, cheese and tomato.  Spread softened butter over the top of bread. Put bacon and cheese and then bake until sandwich is golden brown. Yum yum!