Corn Fritters

Naku, season na naman ng mga mais.  Sugba and tinanok nga mais is found almost everywhere. Why not try this recipe for a change.

1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk (evaporated)
2 cups fresh corn, cooked and scraped off from the cob
Vegetable oil for frying

Sift flour, measure and re-sift with baking powder and salt. Combine beaten eggs and milk. Mix well until smooth. Fold in corm. Drop from a teaspoon into heated oil. Fry until golden brown.

(photo from photo8.com)

Pancake or hotcake

Another recipe from my dear mother's notebook. She used this recipe during those year when ready-to-mix hotcake mix was not available yet in the market. But if you want to try your hand in making real home-made hotcake, here's the recipe for you. It is a lot cheaper if you do this instead of buying the ready-to-mix hotcake.

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup sifted all purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp sugar
1 egg
1 cup milk
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp cooking oil
1/2 cup mince meat (optional)

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. combine eggs, milk, oil, sugar. mix well. add to dry ingredients with mince meat. stir just until flour is moistened. bake on hot griddle pan.

If you use a frying pan, allow the pan to heat up over low to medium heat. Then brush some melted butter or cooking oil. Pour in about 1/2 cup of dough. Cover and allow to cook. If the sides are dry, turn the pancake for the other side to cook.

Instead of meat, you may use mashed banana (green variety), or grated carrot, or chopped malonggay leaves for vitamin-rich pancakes. Happy eating!

Oops! The syrup? Wait lang...

Ah. tantsahan lang sa proportion. Just mix some water (about 1/4 cup), add some white and brown sugar, add butter or oil, heat over low heat until thick. Or you may use condensed milk as topping and sprinkle some chocolate milk drink in granualted form (Milo).

Siomai sa Tisa, Cebu (my version)

I have tried the recipe for siomai sa Tisa as provided by Lina V., a friend from Cebu. Those who wish to try her recipe, click here. Taste good and mouth-watering. I have tried several siomai recipes, but here's the best so far that I want you to try too:

1/2 kilos ground pork with 1/3 fat (fat will make the siomai soft and juicy)
1/2 cup grated carrot-Chinese turnips mix (singkamas in Filipino. In English it's yam bean or jicama. Or you may use sayote - a perennial vegetable)
1 tbsp chopped spring onions (sibuyas dahon)
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 egg, slightly beaten
2 tbsp cornstarch
pepper
sesami oil

prepare and cook as directed here......

For Dodoy who wish to learn how to wrap siomai, here's a video-demo:

Tocino (pork or beef)

Here is a Nora Daza recipe I found in my mother's notebok which I want to share. One thing's sure this is delicious. Nora Daza is famous for her food recipes. I remember when I was little she had a regular cooking demo on TV that my mother watched with intensity (ha-ha!). Yeah, my mother was really hooked on Nora Daza's TV show. Going back to pork or beef tocino, here it is...

from wikipedia.org

1 kilo sirloin (pork or beef)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugr
1 tsp salt peter (salitre)
2 tbsp coarse salt
2 tsp msg (optional)

Slice beef or pork (with some fat) thinly to desired size. In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients and allow meat to marinate for at least 2 hours before cooking or refrigerate for future use.

Tocino is a popular breakfast recipe along with fried egg. It is a sweetened cured pork or beef or chicken meat dish. A native delicacy that is similar to the cured hams, commonly reddish in color and tastes sweet. It's name came from the Spanish word, tocino, which is used to describe cured meat.

Chili paste

Filipininos love to dip their food. Hot dips are a favorite particularly for siomai, fishball, kekiam, etc... We probably got this habit of dipping finger food in sauces from the Chinese. Here's a recipe for chili paste great for siomai, fishball, kekiam, okoy.... etc....

To make chili paste:
1/8 kilo chilies (or siling labuyo)
3 tablespoons cooking oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

Combine chopped chilies and minced garlic then simmer for around 20 minutes or till most of the water has evaporated. Add oil, simmer and stir well.

Another version is to heat some oil in a pan. add some atchuete seeds to extract the color, remove atchuete seeds. then add the chilies, garlic and simmer. Add a pinch of salt.

For siomai, many said chili paste is great if mixed with finely chopped pork and shrimp.

Siomai wrapper

To make siomai wrapper:

1/4 cup water
1 egg
1 tablespoon vegetable or corn oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Beat egg and mix with flour till free of lumps. Bring water, cooking oil and salt to a boil, then pour in flour. Remove from heat and beat until mixture forms a ball. Divide the dough into 1 1/4 -inch balls. Roll each ball on a floured board until paper thin. Use this to wrap your siomai. Recipe for siomai is available in this site.

You may increase your water to 1 cup if you want a thinner and more manageable dough. You may not include the egg yolk if you want a white wrapper. The yolk makes the wrapper yellowish in color.
 

Siomai sa Tisa (Cebu)

from pinoyrecipe.net

Ingredients
1 kg ground pork (suggested proportion of fat to lean meat is 1:3) or 1 kg Prawn (shrimp) peeled
1/2 cup chopped sinkamas (water chestnuts or turnips), if not available, you may use sayote (a year-round vegetable)
1/2 cup chopped carrots
2 medium or 1 large minced onion
bunch of spring onions or leeks
1 egg
5 tablespoons sesame oil
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
about 50 pieces of wanton or siomai wrapper
for sauce: soy sauce, calamansi (lemon), sesame oil and chilli paste

Thoroughly mix all the ingredients for the filling in a large bowl. Refrigerate pork mixture for about 20 minutes. Spoon 1 tablespoon of mixture into each wrapper. Fold and seal. Meanwhile, boil water and brush steamer with oil. When the water gets to a rolling boil, arrange the siomai in the steamer and let stand for 15-20 minutes, longer for larger pieces. Serve with soy sauce, calamansi and sesame oil or chilli paste.

To make siomai wrapper:

1/4 cup water
1 egg
1 tablespoon vegetable or corn oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Beat egg and mix with flour till free of lumps. Bring water, cooking oil and salt to a boil, then pour in flour. Remove from heat and beat until mixture forms a ball. Divide the dough into 1 1/4 -inch balls. Roll each ball on a floured board until paper thin. Set aside.
   
To make chili paste:
1/8 kilo chilies (or siling labuyo)
3 tablespoons cooking oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

Combine chopped chilies and minced garlic then simmer for around 20 minutes or till most of the water has evaporated. Add oil, simmer and stir well.

Another version is to heat some oil in a pan. add some atchuete seeds to extract the color, remove atchuete seeds. then add the chilies, garlic and simmer. Add a pinch of salt.

Chili paste will also taste great if mixed with finely chopped pork and shrimp.
Pork Dumplings