Bacon Wrapped Embutido

We haven't had embutido for a long time, no? FF,blurted one afternoon. Hey, it's December and I always consider embutido,  a Noche Buena dish but why wait for Christmas  when I could have it now? So,  off we went to my favourite supermarket to get all the things I need then.  I made Embutido before and even posted the recipe here . This time, I tweaked the recipe a bit for a more festive looking and tasty Sunday lunch. It certainly looked grand and deserves a  place in the Christmas spread or  in a birthday buffet or on the breakfast table, filled with sunny side up eggs and sinangag!

Ingredients:

1.5  kgs ground meat ( preferably pork)

1 large onion, finely diced

5-6 cloves of garlic, minced

1/2 cup pickle relish

1 large sized carrots, shredded

150 g cheddar cheese, diced

1 small red bell pepper, diced

1 small green bell pepper, diced
1/2 cup pineapple, finely diced

1  cup raisins

3 raw eggs

3 boiled eggs( optional)

a pack of Vienna sausage

1/2 cup bread crumbs

200 g of flour 

1/2 cup banana ketchup

 3 tbsp each of soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce

salt and pepper to taste

1 pack of smoked bacon

Cooking instructions :

1 . In a clean bowl, mix together ground pork, onion, garlic,pickle relish, carrots, bell peppers, pineapple, raisins and cheese.  

2. Once meat and diced vegetable are well combined, add in raw eggs, bread crumbs , ketchup and  flour . Season with soy and Worcestershire sauce, salt and ground pepper. Mix! Mix! Mix! Cover with plastic foil and refrigerate for about 30 minutes to 1 hour so the flavours set it.

3. Take bowl out of the fridge. Peel cooked eggs and slice it into wedges, if using.  Prepare sausages , you could cut sausage into half( lengthwise ) but i prefer to keep it whole.

4. Lay an aluminium foil on your working area. Brush with softened butter. Spread embutido mixture in the middle, leaving an ample space on  the border. Put sausage and cooked egg ( optional)  at  the centre.

5. Carefully roll meat/vegetable mixture over sausage   forming it into a log.

6. Tightly roll aluminium foil and seal both ends like a candy. Put a baking pan at the centre of  a preheated oven ( 200° C).  . Fill baking pan with hot water . Place the embutido on the wire rack and put it over the baking pan, make sure the water does not touch the wire rack. Bake embutido bain- marie style, for 45 mins.

7. Take Embutido out from the open. Set aside to cool. Embutido could be eaten at this point.It could be served cold or pan fried. That, or you can take a step further. Lay a cling foil on your working area. Place bacon strips side by side until it can cover the entire length of one embutido log. 

 7. With the cling foil as your guide, carefully roll bacon around the embutido log. Place bacon wrapped embutido into a greased baking pan and pop in the oven ( 185°c) for about 15 mins or until bacon is evenly browned.

FF liked it so much, he requested another batch for a potluck lunch at his office. Well what do you know? All his German colleagues loved the embutido as much as every Filipino! 

Coconut waffle stuffed with Ube

Waffle dog is one of my favourite childhood snacks back in the Philippines. For some reasons, I end up looking at a picture of a such waffle maker while searching for Christmas  presents online  . Oh bless  Amazon, it certainly makes  shopping so practical  and accessible  . It also makes your wallet looks like a bottomless pit,  which is NOT a good thing (^_^) . With everything and anything   just a click away,  I  kind of got carried away and clicked... clicked and clicked faster than John Wayne could whip his   gun. Gulp!

I baked and made waffles for days after receiving a heavy parcel , just to prove to FF and his raising  right eyebrow that paying 20 bucks for another kitchen gadget that will end up stashed away at the back of the pantry forgotten,  is worth it.  So far, this sweet, Ube filled version was one of my favourite.

Ingredients:

165 ml coconut milk

150 milk

80 g butter,

3 eggs

100 g sugar

265 flour

1 tbsp. Baking powder 

1 tsp. Salt

50 g desiccated coconut

Ube Halaya , available in many Asian store, or in  Amazon !

 1. Make batter by mixing together coconut milk, milk, melted butter, eggs and sugar.

2. Sieve  flour and salt over the batter. Dump desiccated coconut. Mix ! Mix! Mix!

 3. Grease waffle maker well .  Pour enough batter into each mold to fill it 3/4 of the way up. Carefully spoon ube halaya on each waffle.  Spoon batter over the halaya to cover it all up.Close the lid of your waffle maker and secure the latch. Let it cook for about 8 minutes or until it turns golden brown.

4. Eat pipping hot and dusted with powder sugar. Serve with ice cream and a swirl of chocolate sauce for special occasions!

Potato Gratin

A rich and creamy potato recipe with just a tinge of nutmeg that will have anyone digging for more. It goes wonderfully well with steaks, Sunday roast or even stews.
We enjoyed it with pan fried sirloins and green salad last Sunday. Kids and oldies alike.

Kartoffel Gratin ala Emily

Serves 6

1.2 kg potatoes, preferably medium to large sized

45 g butter

3 tbsp. flour

300 ml hot milk

400 ml cream

60 g grated Parmesan cheese

150 grated Gruyere /Emmental/ Cheddar cheese

1/2 tsp. grated nutmeg

white pepper and salt to taste

1. In a small sauce pan, heat butter until melted. Stir in flour , keep stirring under  medium low heat . 

2. Pour  milk, bring to a gentle simmer. Add in  cream. Once mixture boils, add in the grated Parmesan cheese and nutmeg. Season generously with pepper and salt. Take sauce pan out from the heat . Set aside.

3. Peel potatoes and slice thinly. 

4.Arrange a layer of sliced potatoes in a well buttered baking dish.

5. Pour half of cream mixture over the potatoes. Spread evenly. Top with half of the grated cheese.

5. Repeat...Cover baking Dish with aluminium foil.

6. Bake covered , in a preheat oven ( 180° C)  for about an hour. Then remove aluminium foil, increase temperature to 200 °c and bake for 20 more minutes until sides are bubbling with thickened cream and the top is crusty deep brown in color.

Allow to cool for few minutes before  passing judgement. Enjoy!

Cervejaria Ramiro, Lisbon

The restaurant , Cervejaria Ramiro,  is not the place for  first dates.  It's place when you have to be at ease while  sucking tasty innards of a shellfish out of their husk, get your hands dirty and probably licking it at the end of the meal, smashing your  dinner with a mini hammer , splattering foods all over you mascara or probably your neighbours' and be okay with it.

It no your typical fine dining place, but you will dine, really really fine, if you catch my drift.

The whole restaurant is already buzzing with activity when we arrive at 6:30 in the evening. The queue outside wasn't long...yet. FF and I were seated after 5 minutes. The air is tinge with gustatory excitement and anticipation, I could almost taste it. Diners patiently waiting to be seated or served, eyes roving over tables , silently ogling those who already are immensely enjoying themselves.  Men in uniform are seen carrying plates containing seafoods  cooked simply but perfectly.

There's a sense of orderly chaos in the air,  it's a loud and lively room filled with odd sounds of quick steps, dull hammering, loud conversations and even  louder laughter that's usually comes with abundant food and booze. There's no impressive interior, the light is bright , seating arrangement quite pack and cozy, allowing as much diners are the place could offer. Sea creatures adorned the entire place, swimming and still alive on one side, and well, dead and for the taking on the other .

Service is quick and almost brusque , somewhat hurried. They are however, quite attentive. Do not expect a warm and engaging conversation, they will hand you an iPad where you can simply point on the pictures ( if you don't speak Portuguese) and they will be back rather quickly to take your order. FF wants to have some white wine, our waiter whips up a bottle and pour him a glass  and putting the bottle beside him he could finish his sentence. I don't drink, so FF was unsettled at the thought of drinking the entire stuff alone and how much it would cost us.

Soon after that our foods came and his worries, gone.

The shrimps in garlic is served first. We've eaten a lot of shrimps while in Portugal, most of them cooked really , really well. This one however, was the best! It came sizzling and  smelling so divinely garlicky. We used the pillow-soft garlic  butter bread to scrape the tasty morsels at the bottom of that pan.

Next to follow were the tiger shrimps, so huge it overcrowd the plate.  No garnishing or extravagant plating, the shrimps were simply cooked in boiling water, and drizzles with butter and served with half a lemon.

Cervejaria Ramiro don't use too much herbs and spices in their foods. The seafoods were so fresh, it stand out on their own. A drop of lemon is all this shrimp needs! It's sweet  and juicy and so delicious !

 We had a blast hammering this gigantic hairy crab. My husband who hates touching his food with his bare hands, totally forget his aversion and was fishing out crab meat like a pro.

Just when I thought I had enough proteins, FF ordered a Prego, a steak sandwich cooked medium and very, very well. No dessert could be fitter than this!
Our first meal in Lisbon was fantastic, the best part is, all those fresh seafoods, huge streak sandwich, 2 servings of garlic bread ,  an entire bottle of relatively good white wine and my non alcoholic drink cost us less than 90 euro! Life is good at Cervejaria Ramiro!




We close at Mondays.

Address: Av. Almirante Reis nº1 - H, 1150-007 Lisboa, Portugal
Phone:+351 21 885 1024
Hours: 


Sunday	12:00 PM – 12:00 AM
Monday	Closed
Tuesday	12:00 PM – 12:30 AM
Wednesday	12:00 PM – 12:30 AM
Thursday	12:00 PM – 12:30 AM
Friday	12:00 PM – 12:30 AM
Saturday	12:00 PM – 12:30 AM

Open:     12:00

Closed:   00:30

Located in Lisbon, one of the most beautiful European cities, it is a great pleasure that we will inform you where we are and how you can find us.

Find us at:

GPS
	N	38º	43.210’
	W	9º

Oxtail kare Kare Recipe

Filipinos love having friends and family around them. We enjoy company and food so much  we practically celebrate any occasion known to man.

Birthdays..  Wedding.. Reunion...  Having a baby? Got yourself a new car, house or kitchen? Did your kid finished high school ? Did you passed an exam? Got a visa somewhere? Someone working abroad is coming back home.. Manny Pacqiao in the ring beating somebody into a pulp.. Err death anniversary of someone you know? Yup, we celebrated both life and death.

FF and I were invited to a baptism  weeks ago. So what happen when few Filipinas get together? Loud talk and hysterical laughter are shared over abundant foods . Then, between main dish and dessert , date and place for the next get together is discussed and set. Another party! Yay!

So I came to this party carrying a large serving dish containing Kare Kare . A peanut -based stew, usually using oxtail, tripe or beef and is usually  served with sauteed shrimp paste as a condiment.  Compare to the typical tomato based stews in the Philippines, this one taste different and  unique, laborious in making thus considered by many  , quite special. 

Oxtail Kare Kare ala Emily

 ( good for 10)

1.5 - 2 kg oxtail

3 large onion

2 cups of chopped celery stalk

5 bay leaves

1 tbsp. whole peppercorn

1 whole garlic head

1.5- 2 L water ( simply eyeball the amount)

olive oil.

1/2 cup powdered glutinous rice

2 tbsp. annatto/ Atsuete powder

100 g toasted peanut, ground

4 tbsp. peanut butter

2 -3 large eggplant

300 g green beans

500 g baby bokchoi

salt and pepper

Alamang Guisado ( Available in many Asian stores)

Cooking Instructions: 

1. Wash Oxtail under cold running water. Put in a big pot. Pour enough water to so oxtail is submerged in liquid. It may depend on how wide/big your pot is. I used almost 2 L of water. Bring water to a boil, skim off fat using a ladle.

2. Peel onion and cut into quarter , wash and coarsely chop celery stalk, peel about 5 garlic gloves and smash. Add everything to the pot along with peppercorns and bay leaves. Bring to a boil and lower heat to gently simmer . After about an hour, save about a cup of broth. You need it later. Cook for another hour or more until meat is tender. 

 3. Put glutinous rice in a pan and heat until it's slightly toasted and changes color to light brown or ocher. Put aside.

4. Once the oxtail is tender, fish out the meat from the pan and set a side. Pour the contents if the pot in a bowl through a colander.

 5. Heat olive oil in a large pan. Saute one finely chopped ,large onion and 3 cloves of minced garlic. Put oxtail into the pan. Stir and season with salt.

 

6. Dissolve 3 tbsp. Annato/ Atsuete powder in the oxtail broth. Pour it back to the  oxtail meat.

7. Spoon peanut butter and ground peanut. Bring to a boil.

8. Remember that cup of oxtail broth? Cooking instruction number 2. Use it to dissolve the toasted glutinous rice flour. Cooking instruction number 3.

9.  Pour that mixture into the pot. The starch will help thicken up the sauce. Cover and bring to a boil for 10 minutes. Give the sauce a try, season with salt and pepper as need.

10. Cut eggplant into serving pieces. Arrange on top of the oxtail meat. Cover and cook for about 8 minutes. Add in green bean, cook for another 5 minutes.

11. Wash and put baby bokchoi over beans and eggplant.  Cook for 3 more minutes. To keep vegetable green and crunchy, you can simply blanche the bokchoi and serve on top of the stew.

Serve with Alamang and enjoy!

Cassava Cake with Flan Topping

Our motivation on weight loss is dwindling at  an all time low. My girlfriends and I have long given up inspirational talks  and half-assed hearted membership to  fitness studious.

Since coaching apparently isn't working,  we resort to challenging. A weight loss challenge with some cash involve. Recession and potential christmas shopping could be the push we all direly  need.  So weigh ourselves , wrote that dreaded numbers on a piece of paper and promise each other to stay fit , healthy and yes,  shred few unwanted kgs before 2015 ends. Whoever loses weight the most, gets the money. The prospect of being few bucks richer in December  pulls us like donkeys on a  carrot and stick for months.

The group tried , I know. We keep tab on each others  success failures. But the lack of determination  finally shine  like a golden nugget in the mud. Nobody  was really is up to the challenge!
So instead of trying to loss weight, each of us is now determined to make our opponents gain more weight than us!

I met my girlfriends/competitors again this week . We discuss our usual shenanigans  over dinner. I made this rich,  calorific  Cassava cake. I could have made a simpler topping but I want to make it extra irresistible. It was wipe out in no time. Butter, cream, eggs, sugar , calories and all.

We women are devious creatures!

Ingredients: 

1 kg cassava/maniok, peeled and grated

1 can condense milk

2 cans ( 400ml each) coconut milk

1/2 cup or 100 g granulated sugar

50 g butter, melted

3 eggs beaten

4 egg yolks

1 bottle macapuno

a handful of cheeses ( I used Parmesan and Emmental)

1 can ( 400 ml) evaporated milk



Baking Instruction:

1. In a large mixing bowl, put coconut milk, 2/3 of the condense milk, sugar and melted butter. Mix everything thoroughly. Set aside.

2. In a separate bowl, put grated manioc or cassava and 3 beaten eggs. 

3. Add in 2/3 of macapuno strip. Stir! Stir! Stir!

4. Fold in cassava mixture into the liquid mixture. Mix well until everything is well incorporated.

5. Pour batter in a well -greased/buttered baking pan /pans. I used 2 baking pans.

6. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese and grated Cheddar/Emmental over it. Bake in a preheated oven ( 175°C) for about 30 to 35 minutes until set but the middle still wobbles. 

7. While cake is baking, make custard topping. In a mixing bowl , beat together 4 egg yolks, the rest of the condense milk and evaporated milk. Whisk until mixture becomes homogenous. Stir in the rest of the macapuno strips.

 8. Take almost cooked cassava cake from the oven and pour custard topping on top. Pop it back in the oven, increase temp. to 180°c and bake until custard is set and turns golden brown. Takes 15-20 minutes.