Happy New Year and a Wonderful 2007!

A Bridal Shower

Weddings are my favorite kind of party. The romantic ambiance, the warmth of relatives you haven't seen in ages, the boisterous children, the flowers, the food, new friends made, the celebration of an important step towards disaster (just kidding!). Whatever happens afterwards, the wedding celebration is one to remember forever. I for one remember my wedding reception of 300 guests. Whether this number seems small or big to you, the party was an intimate one of close friends and family. I have to say it was the best party I ever attended.

My second to the youngest cousin, the only male in our brood of cousins, is about to be married to a sweet and lovely girl. To start of our cousin-in-law relations well, my cousins and I gave her a bridal shower. I was quite surprised when the-bride-to-be called to ask if she could invite ten of her friends! After the initial confusion among the cousins (we had planned a small party), we decided it was a good way to meet her friends before the wedding and told her it would be our pleasure to host them. There were fifteen of us in all, a mix of relatives and friends on both sides. Not all of us made it however, one cousin was stuck abroad because of a legal matters concerning her business, another cousin had to stay home because of pregnancy symptoms. Despite these set backs we went through with the shower and made the best of it. The Cava was flowing, the food delicious and the guests were interesting. The shower's theme is Books, so my cousins and I gave her a gift of three cookbooks which I think will help start her out in becoming a good home cook.

1. Cook with Jamie by Jamie Oliver
2. Ken Holm's Top 100 Stir-Fry Recipes by Ken Holm
3. 365 Ways to Cook Chicken by Cheryl Sedaker
   

I made a buffet of cocktail food and two substantial dishes since the party will lapse into dinner time. Lots of cocktail drinks all around and the Christmas decor gave of a festive ambiance to the shower.

Berry Iced Tea

Frozen Margarita

Cava

assorted bread

Caramelized Onion Dip with Vegetable Crudites

Pithale (Indian Dip)

Egg & Nori Finger Sandwiches

Bisteeya (Moroccan Chicken Pie)

Vegetarian Burritos

Baked Brie with Dried Fruit & Nuts

Burnt Butter Cupcakes with Sugar Frosting

Egg & Nori Sandwiches
Nori sheets are sheets of seaweed used in Japanese sashimi. You can buy the shredded variety in any Japanese grocery, or use sheets.

hard-boiled eggs, sliced
Japanese mayonnaise
shredded nori
white sandwich bread, crusts removed

Spread a thin layer of mayo on one side of all the pieces of bread. Place a layer of the sliced egg on a slice of bread, top with nori and sandwich with another slice of bread. Cut sandwich in half to make finger sandwiches.


Baked Brie with Dried Fruits & Nuts

1 round of Brie or Camembert
apricots, diced
raisins
sultanas
muscovado or brown sugar

Toss the dried fruit in a bowl then mound on top of cheese round. sprinkle tops with brown sugar. Bake in 350 F oven until sugar caramelizes, about 10-15 minutes. Serve with French bread or crackers.

Burnt-Butter Brown Sugar Cupcakes
from The Domestic Goddess

These cupcakes are unbelievable good. This is the third recipe from Nigella Lawson's bake book that I've tried and all were incredibly successful. Another keeper.

12 bun muffin tray lined with muffin papers

for the cupcakes:
150g butter
125g self-raising flour
60g golden caster sugar
65g light brown sugar (or muscovado)
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-3 tablespoons milk

for the icing:
150g butter
250-300g golden icing sugar, sieved
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-3 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 200c and start burning the butter. Put butter in a small saucepan on medium heat, stirring all the time until it turns a dark golden colour. Take the pan off the heat and pour the butter into a bowl or cup. In other words, this is like clarified butter, but with a smoky note. Let the butter solidify again, so it remains soft for the cupcakes (although the book says not to refrigerate, I did or I would have been waiting for days for the butter to solidify, stir well to soften before adding to the rest of the ingredients).

When the butter is solid, but still soft, put all the cake ingredients except the milk in a food processor and blitz to a smooth batter. As normal, add the milk down the funnel, pulsing sparingly to form a soft, dropping mixture.

Divide between the paper cases, and cook for 15-20 minutes. While the cupcakes are baking, get on with the icing. It's the same procedure for the butter - burn, sieve, solidify - then beat it with half the sieved sugar or enough to make it stiff. Add tablespoons of the milk and the remaining sugar alternately to reach a good consistency, and finally the vanilla.

While the icing's still soft, smear messily over the cooled and waiting cupcakes.

Sugar High Friday #26: Sugar Art

Sugar High Friday is a foodblogging event started by Jennifer of blog The Domestic Goddess. As the title suggests, the event centers on a theme for the month based on sweets. Last month's theme was Chocolate Truffles and what a selection of entries! This month's host for SHF #26 is Danielle of Habeas Brulee and the theme is Sugar Art.

My last post was of cupcakes I made for my godson's fourth birthday. The recipe is from Nigella Lawson's How To Be A Domestic Goddess. These cupcakes were buttery, moist, fluffy and fun to make. I decorated the tops with colored sugar icing and an assortment of soft candies. They were so easy to make I almost felt guilty when I got oohs and ahhs from the adults.

Birthday Cupcakes

Cupcakes for My Godson

It's was my godson Xavy's fourth birthday and I made some cupcakes for his party. Xavy is a twin, the younger twin born minutes after his brother Alexandro. They are so cute! I don't know why, but I'm one of the very few who can tell them apart. Some say my powers of perceptiveness are exceptional seeing as I only see them once a year. And even then, they we're more interested in the balloon art being created by a very talented balloon artist (I'm thinking of using him myself for one of my parties).

Birthday Cupcakes
from Nigella Lawson's "How to be a Domestic Goddess"

I used candies found at the grocery to decorate these cupcakes, for a girls birthday party you could use mini marshmallows and color the icing in pastels. For adults, leave the icing white and decorate with a single sugar flower. The possibilities are endless, but a good rule of thumb would be to use decor with some height for these almost flat tops.

1 stick butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-3 tablespoons milk

2 cups icing sugar
2 tablespoons water or milk
assorted candies

12 cupcake papers


Preheat oven to 200 C.

Place the butter, sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder, salt and vanilla in a food processor and blitz until smooth. Pulse while pouring milk down the chute. Spoon batter evenly into cupcake cases placed in muffin pans. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Make the icing by stirring the icing sugar and water until smooth. Divide icing and color each with 1-3 drops of your choice of food colorings (I used blue, green and violet). Decorate tops with candy.

Onion Day!

Onion Day takes place every year on the 4th Monday of November in Berne, Switzerland. Zorra, the creator of Bread Day last October, has made today's Onion Day a new blog event! I'm glad to hear the unassuming onion gets a day of recognition, as it is probably the most used vegetable in any kitchen. Onions come in many forms and sizes, you have red, white and green onions, pearl, Vidalia and the shallot. I use the red onion the most often and green onions (scallions) second. This relish recipe was in my collection of recipes to try out. I had some turkey breast in the freezer and all the ingredients for the relish were on hand. I thought this would make a great salad. Red onions can be pretty strong when eaten raw, a trick I learned to lessen its spicy pungency without loosing any of its flavor or crunchiness, is to soak the chopped onions in lemon juice or vinegar before adding it to the dish your making. In this case, vinegar is one of the ingredients in the recipe so I added the whole onion-vinegar mixture to the rest of the ingredients, otherwise the onions should be drained.


Turkey and Onion Relish Salad
Serves 6

Onion-Caper Walnut Relish
adapted from Marc Meyer's recipe

3/4 cup walnuts
1 clove garlic
2 tablespoons salt-packed capers, rinsed and finely chopped
1 small red onion, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
1 tablespoon freshly chopped flat-leaf parsley
1/4 cup aged sherry-wine vinegar
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup raisins, soaked in warm water until puffed

2 cups diced turkey breast

Mince garlic in a food processor. Add walnuts and pulse to a rough paste. Place walnut mixture in a bowl and stir in capers, onions, parsley, vinegar, olive oil and drained raisins. Season with salt and pepper.

Saute turkey in olive oil, season with salt and pepper. Add relish and toss to combine. Serve on a bed of salad greens.


Onion Day Roundup

Ladies Lunch Menu for 15

Although no one complained or noticed, I had to take the second course off the menu. The problem was the molds I used for the Chicken Liver Timbale, some of the timbales didn't unmold properly. Anyway, it's a good thing these ladies eat like birds and so there was enough food to go around twice.

Sweet Potato Soup

Chicken Liver Timbale with Tomato Bearnaisse

Lapu-lapu (Grouper) Fillet in Saffron Sauce
(from Time-Life Book of Hearty Home Cooking)

Chocolate Pavlova with Mandarin Oranges

Sweet Potato Soup
A velvety-smooth soup accented with Thai seasonings. Delicious!

1 tablespoon canola or peanut oil
1 onion—chopped
3 cloves garlic—chopped
2 teaspoons red curry paste
1kg (4 cups) orange sweet potato—peeled and roughly chopped
1 cup red lentils
5 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 cup coconut milk
3 tablespoons fish sauce
2 teaspoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice

HEAT the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. ADD the onion and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. ADD the garlic and red curry paste and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. ADD the sweet potato, red lentils, stock, coconut milk, fish sauce and brown sugar and bring to the boil. REDUCE the heat to medium and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes. REMOVE from the heat and allow to cool a little. PUREE the soup in two batches in a blender or food processor until smooth. RETURN to the saucepan and stir in the lemon juice. SERVE in bowls garnished with cilantro.

Variations: Replace the sweet potato with butternut squash (pumpkin); substitute the lemon juice with lime juice; and use yellow split peas rather than red lentils (in which case you'll need to cook for around 35 minutes).


Chicken Liver Timbales
I placed this recipe here, despite the minor disaster, because it tasted good and I will add to a future menu. Use non-stick molds!

For 4 servings, you will need:

2 eggs,
2 tbsp. Madeira, sherry, or 1 tsp. lemon juice,

For the roux:
4 tbsp. butter,
4 tbsp. all-purpose flour,
1/2 c. undiluted chicken broth,
1/2 c. milk,
1 tsp. dried thyme leaves,
1/4 tsp. salt.

Butter and bread crumbs for baking dishes (optional, if using non-stick molds)
Tomato Bearnaise (recipe follows)
Chopped chives Parsley and tomato wedges for garnish

Tomato Bearnaise: Into blender or food processor with steel blade, place
3 egg yolks,
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice,
1 teaspoon dried tarragon leaves, and
3 tablespoons tomato paste.

Process until blended. While blender or processor is on, slowly add
3/4 cup hot melted butter.

Sauce will be thin while hot, but it will thicken as it cools.

Clean chicken livers, removing any fat, tendons or discolored portions. Place into blender or food processor with steel blade in place. Process until smooth. Add eggs, Madeira, or lemon juice. Set aside. In saucepan, melt butter. Blend in flour. Cook 1 minute. Slowly add chicken broth and milk. Cook until very thick and smooth. Add the thyme and salt. Blend sauce into chicken liver mixture. Press mixture through strainer and divide among 4 custard cups that have been buttered and sprinkled with crumbs.

Place cups into shallow pan with inch boiling water. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes or just until a knife inserted in the center of a custard comes out clean. Meanwhile, prepare Tomato Bearnaise. To serve, unmold Timbales onto individual serving dishes. Spoon on the sauce and sprinkle with chopped chives. Garnish with parsley and tomato wedges. Serve hot.


Chocolate Pavlova
The Chocolate Pavlova was very good. I omitted the chopped bittersweet chocolate because I thought it would be too heavy a dessert and I doubled the amount of whipping cream. It turned out good with the orange segments. But, next time I will add bittersweet chocolate chips and Cointreau to the whipping cream. Alternatively, I could add mint to the chocolate meringue and use strawberries for the fruit. Or, sprinkle the whipped cream with banana chips, add some rum and drizzle with caramel sauce. What else...

A Birthday Brunch

My sister, the party girl, celebrated her birthday all weekend long. Friday and Saturday nights lasted till morning, ending with a Sunday brunch I hosted.

Bloody Geisha
Cava Mimosa

Pancakes
(from Gourmet magazine, Dec. 1993)
Orange Sauce
Maple Flavored Syrup
Crisp Bacon

Crustless Potato Quiche
(from the Food Network's The Barefoot Contessa)

Sausages Stewed in Red Wine

Lemon Cupcakes

Bloody Geisha
adapted from Ming Tsai's Bloody Mary
Sake, a Japanese rice wine, is a wonderful alternative to vodka for those who dislike the strong alcoholic component of the usual Bloody Mary's. Choosing a premium sake is of utmost importance and definately worth the price in terms of flavor.

2 11-ounce cans V-8
11 ounces tomato juice
1 1/2 cups Premium Sake
1 lemon, juiced
1 tablespoon Chinese black vinegar or Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon naturally brewed soy sauce
2 tablespoons wasabi paste
1 tablespoon horseradish

Ice

In a bottle or other container, add V-8, tomato juice, sake, lemon juice, vinegar, soy sauce, wasabi, and horseradish. Shake vigorously and refrigerate until ready to use. Serve in glasses filled with ice.


Cava Mimosa

semi-sec Cava or Champagne, chilled
fresh orange juice, chilled

Fill champagne glasses with half oj and half Cava.


Pancakes
These are the best pancakes ever.

3 large eggs, separated
1 stick butter, plus more for cooking pancakes
1 1/2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
1 cup flour
1 tablespoon sugar

In a bowl, whisk all ingredients except egg whites, until mixture is smooth. Beat egg whites to stiff peaks and fold into flour mixture.

Heat a griddle or skillet on medium-high heat. Melt about half a teaspoon of butter and, using a small ladle, pour batter into pan and cook pancakes for 1 to 2 minutes on each side. A good way to tell when the bottom side is done is when top part is filled with bubbles, it then takes a few seconds for the flipped side to cook.

Serve with 2 kinds of syrup and a side of crisp bacon. Mmmmmmmm!


Crustless Potato Quiche
This recipe is adapted from Ina Garten's TV show The Barefoot Contessa. It calls for basil leaves which I didn't have in hand so had to omit, it was delicious anyway. I used a 10-inch springform cakepan to mold the quiche. The recipe's original title is Potato Basil Frittata, I titled it differently because it seems more like a quiche than a frittata to me.

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, divided
2-3 cups peeled and 1/2-inch diced boiling potatoes
10 large eggs
15 ounces cottage cheese, drained
3/4 pound Gruyere or Emmenthaler cheese, grated
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
1/3 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Melt 3 tablespoons of butter in a 10-inch ovenproof omelet pan over medium-low heat. Add the potatoes and fry them until cooked through, turning often, about 10 to 15 minutes. Place potatoes in the bottom of a 10-inch springform pan and spread evenly. Melt the remaining 5 tablespoons of butter in a small saucepan or microwave.

Meanwhile, whisk the eggs, then stir in the ricotta, Gruyere, melted butter, salt, pepper, and basil. Sprinkle on the flour and baking powder and stir into the egg mixture.

Pour the egg mixture over the potatoes and place the cakepan in the center of the oven. Bake the frittata until it is browned and puffed, 50 minutes to 1 hour. It will be rounded and firm in the middle and a knife inserted in the frittata should come out clean. Serve hot on a round serving platter.

Mixology Monday #9: Bitters

It's time to get that shaker and cocktail glasses out of the closet and join Mixology Monday, a monthly blog event that follows a different theme each time. The host for this month is blog A Dash of Bitters and he chose the theme, what else? - Bitters. What a relief for that bottle of Angustura bitters sitting in my kitchen cabinet for more than a year now!

As I was perusing Dale Degroff's The Craft of the Cocktail, I read somewhere in the introduction that the first time the cocktail appeared in print was in 1806 in an American publication written by the editor about a new kind of drink. So this year could well be the 200 year anniversary of the cocktail. Cheers!

Cocktail is a stimulating liquor composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water and bitters. It is vulgarly called a bittered sling and is supposed to be an excellent electioneering potion…

The Balance and Columbian Repository, 1806
(as quoted by The Craft of the Cocktail)

Adonis Cocktail 11
from The Craft of the Cocktail

1 oz dry sherry
1 oz sweet vermouth
1 oz fresh orange juice
dash of bitters
dash of simple syrup
orange peel, for garnish

Shake with ice and strain into a small cocktail glass. Garnish with the orange peel.

See what others have contributed to this round of Mixology Monday... MxMo9 Roundup

Dinner Menu for 10

Another dinner I catered for my grandmother and mom. I had to leave early and didn't get to say hello to the artist Sanso. The first and last time I saw him was at his apartment in Paris where he served me an exquisite sweet Spanish wine which he said was his favorite (I can't remeber what it was).

Puree of Red Pepper Soup
(adapted from Sun-Drenched Cuisine)

Red Snapper Fillet in Saffron Sauce
(from Time-Life Book of Hearty Home Cooking)

Boiled New Potatoes

Slow-Cooked Duck in Olive Sauce
(adapted from The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen)

Gratin of Fresh Fruit Sabayon
(from my Cordon Bleu notebooks)

Puree of Red Pepper Soup

3 medium onions, chopped
9 cloves garlic, chopped
6 tbsp unsalted butter
10 medium sized red bell peppers, stems and pith removed and coarsely chopped
3 cups canned diced tomato
3 tbsp Pernod or to taste
6 tsp paprika
1 1/2 tsp Herbs de Provence
6 cups vegetable broth
1 cup sour cream

Lightly saute the onion and garlic in butter until softened, then add peppers and cook over medium heat until peppers are softened.

Add tomatoes, Pernod, paprika, herbs and broth, bring to a boil.

Puree soup in a blender. Heat the soup just before serving. Remove from heat and mix in the sour cream.


Red Snapper in Saffron Sauce

1 kilo red snapper (maya-maya) or grouper (lapu-lapu) fillets
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups dry white wine
1 medium red onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp dried thyme leaves or 2 sprigs fresh
2 tsp fennel seeds, crushed
20 black peppercorns
2 tbsp butter
40 saffron threads, steeped in half cup hot water for 10 minutes
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 cup cream, mixed with 1 tsp cornstarch

Gently rinse fillet under cold running water and pat dry with paper towels. Sprinkle fillets with salt and set aside.

In a large, heavy-bottomed skillet, combine the next 7 ingredients. Bring mixture to a boil and simmer for 3 minutes. Put the fish in the pan, lower the heat and poach, covered, for about 6 minutes or until fish is opaque and firm to the touch. Carefully transfer fish to a warm serving dish and cover with foil to keep warm.

Incease the heat under the skillet and reduce poaching liquid to 1 cup, about 5 minutes. Strain into a small saucepan, including any liquid that has accumulated in the serving dish. Stir in saffron and mustard, simmer for 2 minutes. Whisk inthe cornstarch-cream mixture and cook until sauce has thickened slightly. Pour the sauce on the fillets and serve.


Slow-Cooked Duck with Olives

2 duckilings (5-6 lbs each)
4 medium onions, coarsely chopped
16 garlic cloves, halved lengthwise
3 tbsp fresh thyme
1/2 cup coarsely chopped flat-leaf parsley, including stems
4 bay leaves
4 tsp sea salt
2 tsp pepper
2 tsp herbes de Provence

Preheat on oven to 475 degrees F. Halve the ducklings by cutting through both sides of the spine, set aside the the back bones, neck and wing tips for the sauce. In two roasting pans or one large enough to fit the ducklings side-by-side, make a bed of the onions, garlic, thyme, parsley and bay leaves. Prick ducks skin with a fork at 1/2-inch intevals. Rub the ducks with salt, pepper and herbs de Provence and set them on top of the vegetables, skin side up. Roast uncovered for 10 minutes.

Reduce the oven temperature to 275 degrees F. Cover pan with foil and cook duck for about 3 1/2 hours, or until very tender. Remove from oven and brush duck with the oil in the pan, set aside and make the Olive Sauce.

Carefully transfer ducks to a chopping board. Remove and discard any loose bones, chopped vegetables, and clumps of fat. Quarter or cut the duck in more pieces. Wrap in foil or brush with more duck oil to prevent drying out.

Place roasting pan on medium heat and deglaze with wine, scrapping bottom to loosen caramelized juices. Add water and reduce sauce to half its original amount. Add to finished Olive Sauce.

About 10 minutes before serving, preheat the broiler and set the rack about 10 inches from the heat source. Brush with more oil and crisp duck skin under the broiler.

Place duck pieces on a serving platter and pour sauce over. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve.

Green Olive Sauce

neck, back and wing tips of the duck
1 medium onion, sliced
4 tbsp tomato paste
1 cup dry white wine
2 cups chicken stock
salt and pepper
3 cups green olives
1/2 tsp herbes de Provence

Slowly brown bones in a skillet. Add onions and cook for about 10 minutes, until browned. Pour off any excess fat.

Add tomato paste, mix well, and cook for 2 minutes. Deglaze pan with white wine. Add stock and water. Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer for 1 hour. Strain, degrease, and reduce to 2 cups. Add sauce from roasting pan.

Before serving, bring sauce to a boil, add olives, and simmer for 10 minutes. Adjust seasonings.


Gratin of Fresh Fruit Sabayon
You can use any combination of fruits for this delicious gratin.

1/2 small pineapple, peeled, cored and eyes removed
3 large bananas, sliced and sprinkled with some lemon or calamansi juice
1/4 melon, peeled and sliced
1 pomelo (suha) segments, peeled and white membrane removed

for the sabayon
8 egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar + 1/4 cup water
1 whipping cream
4 tbsp Cointreau

Combine fruits in a large baking pan.

Heat sugar and water until sugar has melted. Whip egg yolks. Gradually add hot syrup and continue whipping until cooled. Add Cointreau.

Whip cream to stiff peaks. Fold into whipped egg mixture until well combined.

Pour sabayon over fruits. Place under a broiler until browned.

*the Fruits with Sabayon may be broiled a few minutes before serving, refrigerate in the meantime.

A Day at Tagaytay

I spent the most pleasant day with my sister in Tagaytay. We first went to Ilog Maria to replenish our beauty and health supplies. I can't live without their Honeymilk Cleanser and Probiotic Bee Propolis. Then we had lunch, or rather a very late breakfast, at Breakfast at Antonio's where the entire menu consists of breakfast meals served all day every day. I went all out and had the Fresh Corned Beef with Sauerkraut and Boiled Potatoes AND we split the Chocolate Chip Waffles for "dessert". My sister had the Cheese and Roasted Vegetable Rosti. We then went to see some great furniture at Domicillo which is located at The Cliffhouse. Some really fabulous artwork by Soler Santos were on exhibit. The Cliffhouse is a great little place with some very good restaurants (two of the three restos were awarded Tatler's Best Restaurant 2006) and fantastic views of Taal Lake. I'll be going back soon for sure. We then ended our trip and drove down singing to the soundtrack of Studio 54. Keep on dancin keep on dancin yeah yeah!