BEEF MORCON (ROLLED BEEF WITH STUFFINGS)

Beef morcon is a Filipino dish with Spanish influence, usually prepared for special occasions such as fiestas, Pasko (Christmas), bagong taon (New Year) or birthdays. It's the Filipino version of Beef Roulade, rolled beef w/ stuffings. This will definitely be on my menu this year.


This is my version. I kept it simple and easy w/o compromising the flavor.

Ingredients:
Y: 4


Beef and Marinade:

1 -2 lbs. of steak ( flank steak, loin steaks, chip steaks)
1/2 c soy sauce
1/4 c lemon juice (fresh)
S&P to taste

Fillings:
*** cut into strips
4 hotdogs ***
6 sweet pickles ***
Cheddar cheese ***
2 med carrots ***
Lardons ( pork fat) cooked*** you can substitute these w/ bacon or chorizo de bilbao
6 hard boiled eggs.

Sauce:
2 bay leaves
1 can tomato diced or puree (28 oz)
Slurry (2 tsp cornstarch, 1 tsp water)
S&P to taste

Butchers twine or toothpick to secure the rolled beef.



1. Marinate beef in the marinade ingredients. Cover and refrigerate for an hour.
2. Lay marinated steak on a board, start arranging the filling ingredients. You may cut eggs into halves or leave it whole w/c i prefer for presentation.
3. Roll out beef starting at the narrow end or imperfect shape of the steak.
4. Secure by using butchers twine. If you don't have butchers twine you can use toothpick, just make sure to take them out as soon as the morcons are cooked.
5. Brown the rolled beef on all sides.
6. Arrange in a casserole dish, pour the sauce ingredients, bake at 375 degrees F for an hour. *

Cooking time will depend on what type of beef you will be using. In my version it took 45 min. to an hour since it's a thin cut of beef and the fillings are basically cooked already.



Serve w/ steamed rice or bread.

Note: The tradional way of cooking morcon is to simmer them until meat is tender. I find baking them is better plus i don't have to babysit them.

Nice cut of meat!

Filling ingredients (Use bacon or chorizo de bilbao if you can't find lardons.)

Arrange fillings on top of the marinated beef. You may or may not cut the eggs. I like to leave hard boiled eggs whole for presentation.

Carefully roll the beef and secure w/ butchers twine.

Beef Morcon ready to be sliced.



BEEF MORCON (SLICED AND READY TO BE SERVED)

ENJOY!!!!!!

PUMPKIN ALMOND CANNOLI

4 oz. mascarpone ( since there is no 4 oz packaging, i buy the 8 oz and use the half)
3/4 cup powdered sugar
3/4 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup ricotta cheese
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 cup slivered almonds ( i chopped them to make smaller slivered almonds)
1/2 cup whipping cream
12 purchased cannoli shells (i bought 6 big and 6 mini shells)
Powdered sugar

1. Stir together mascarpone cheese, powdered sugar, pumpkin, ricotta, and pumpkin pie spiece until smooth.. Stir in 1/4 cup of the almonds. Set aside.

2. In a chilled mixing bowl beat cream until stiff peaks form. Fold into pumpkin mixture.

3. To serve, spoon pumpkin mixture into a self-sealing plastic bag then snipa a small hole in one corner. Pipe filling into cannoli shells so pumpkin filling extends from ends. Sprinkle cannoli ends with remaining almonds.

Arrange on a platter, sprinkle with sugar. Makes 12 servings

Cannoli sans the almond and powdered sugar

Pumpkin Almond Cannoli= oh so yummy!

Easy and Moist Pumpkin Cake

Yes, It's my kind of cake, Pumpkin cake that is. Why you might ask? It's a two ingredients Pumpkin Cake, and i'm not kidding! I got this recipe from Big Red Kitchen . What caught my attention was her title "Two Ingredients Pumpkin Cake with Apple Cider Glaze". For those who know me, you will so agree that this is my kind of cake, ha!ha! I got interested but was a bit iffy until i made them last night.

OMGosh...it's so moist and so good! You don't believe me? go ahead and make them, and pls let me know how yours went.

There is just a hint of the pumpkin flavor on the cake that's why for me it's imperative to make a glaze and incorporate the pumpkin pie spice. I followed her apple cider glaze and somehow it has enhanced and help bring out the pumpkin taste to the cake.

Ingredients for the cake:

1 box of yellow cake mix
15 oz pumpkin puree not pumpkin pie filling.

Preheat oven to 350 F.
Combine and mix the cake mix and pumpkin puree in a mixer.
Beat on medium speed for 5 minutes.
Pour batter on a greased pan. ( i used a 7x11 baking dish)
Bake for 28 - 30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
Cool before pouring the apple cider glaze.

APPLE CIDER GLAZE:

1 C confectioners sugar
2 T apple cider
1/2 t pumpkin pie spice

Blend and mix all ingredients until smooth. Pour over pumpkin cake.

I bought my yellow cake mix from Aldi.

This how it will look like. Really, it's just the mix and the puree!

After baking for 30 minutes at 350 degrees F.

Apple Cider Glaze ingredients

Beautiful huh?

Yes, I added more glaze to my slice!

ENJOY!!!!!!

CHIPOTLE CHICKEN

This dish could be served with rice or pasta. Should you want to serve this w/ pasta, i suggest to make extra sauce.

Ingredients: Y: 4

4 pcs. Chicken (i prefer drumsticks with skin)
1/2 C Sour cream
1/3 C Milk
2 T flour
2 T butter
S&P
1/2 Can Chipotle salsa
1 chicken bouillon
water if needed

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Season Chicken w/ S&P then bake until chicken skin turns crispy and meat is cooked. I broiled the chicken for few minutes right before i took it out of the oven.
3. While the chicken is baking in the oven, prepare a roux (equal parts of butter and flour) For this recipe i used 2 T of each. Brown the butter then add flour stirring constantly until butter and flour are thoroughly mixed.
4. Slowly add the milk stirring constantly to avoid lumps. I added little water to thin out the sauce.
7. Stir in sour cream and bouillon, continue to stir until all ingredients are incorporated and no more lumps. Add the chipotle salsa, depending on how hot you want your sauce to be. Season with S&P.
8. Add the cooked chicken into the sauce and let it simmer for few minutes until chicken can absorb or take on the the flavor of the sauce

Chipotle Chicken served w/ steamed rice and Succotash

ENJOY!!!!

SUCCOTASH

A Native American dish. Read THIS for more fyi. I didn't have lima beans, so i opted to use canned black beans. Overall the dish was good and lesson learned..never to use canned beans w/ fresh veggies. I will be grilling all the veggies next time i make this.

This is the kind of recipe that doesn't really need exact measurements. It'll all depend on how much veggies you would like to cook with. This can also be cooked w/ meat such as rendered pork or bacon. I went vegetarian this time since i made this as a side dish to my Chipotle Chicken w/c i will be blogging too.

Ingredients:
Fresh sweet corn kernels ( i used 3 ears)
Lima beans or any beans (i used canned black beans)
Sweet bell pepper (any color)
sweet onions
garlic
celery
tomatoes
Salt and pepper to taste


Shuck corn then slice the kernels from cobs.
Chop veggies in the same sizes
Saute garlic and onions until cooked.
Add corn, celery and sweet pepper, stirring until cooked.
Add tomatoes right before serving to keep tomatoes fresh.
Add vegetable broth or water if necessary
Season with salt and pepper.

FRIED GARLIC PEANUTS (PRITONG MANI)

Another popular Filipino pulutan**! Fried garlic peanuts, i love them hot and spicy served w/ chilled soda or beer...hhhmmm..i love the smell as it's frying too!

I'm lucky i can buy the peeled nuts and the perfect size i want, here in my neck of the woods.

pulutan=means foods that goes well w/ beer or hard drinks.

Ingredients:

Peeled/Shelled raw peanuts
4 cloves of garlic (thinly sliced)
salt
oil
pepper flakes

1. Heat up oil in a pan or wok.

2. Fry the sliced garlic. Stir for few minutes until garlic gets brown but not burn. Take them out and set it aside.

3. Pour in the peeled raw peanuts and stir constantly for 15 minutes or until peanuts are cooked. Peanuts may be soft when its cooking. It'll be crunchy when it cools down.

4. Strain peanuts, then add the fried garlic, salt and pepper flakes depending how much salt and how hot you want your peanuts.

ENJOY!!!!!

BRAIN CUPCAKES, SPIDER WEB CUPCAKES AND FINGER COOKIES

Last year i made finger cookies for halloween. This year i made brain cupcakes and web cupcakes.

EYEBALLS : CANNED LYCHEES AND MARASCHINO CHERRIES
FINGERS: ANY COOKIE DOUGH BUT I USED MY EMPANADA DOUGH FOR THESE. ALMONDS FOR THE NAILS. EGGWASH THE "FINGERS" BEFORE BAKING.

My Last Years Fingers!

This years fingers!!! Looks like these fingers got arthritis and jaundice too=;), for some reason my eggwash was so yellow!

Cupcake Ingredients:

1 box of chocolate cake mix (follow the box instructions and ingredients).
**1 box usually yields 12 cupcakes

Cream Cheese Frosting:

1 8 oz cream cheese (room temperature)
1 stick unsalted butter (room temperature)
2 cups confectioners sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Using an electric mixer, mix cream cheese and unsalted butter on medium speed until smooth.
Add the vanilla and slowly add the confectioners sugar until your desired sweetness.

***PIPE SOME DULCE DE LECHE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CUPCAKE FOR A SWEET SURPRISE WHEN YOU BITE INTO THE CAKE.

SPIDER WEB CUPCAKES. I USED DULCE DE LECHE AND CREAM CHEESE FROSTING.
SPREAD THE FROSTING, PIPE THE DULCE DE LECHE AND MAKE 3 RINGS ON TOP OF THE FROSTED CUPCAKE THEN USING A TOOTHPICK DRAW FROM CENTER OUT WIPING TOOTHPICK IN BETWEEN DRAW TO MAKE A CLEAN WEB.

BRAIN CUPCAKES: CREAM CHEESE FROSTING. MIX A LITTLE OF YELLOW AND RED FOOD COLORING TO ACHIEVE THE PINKISH COLOR. PIPE THE FROSTING THEN MAKE A "BRAIN DESIGN"

CHINESE WATERCHESTNUT A.K.A WATER CALTROP

I saw these stuff at every produce market in Chinatown, Chicago last month. We missed the Chinese Moon Festival by a day, i thought i could still buy moon cakes but to no avail, i instead ended up buying these. Well, i actually bought a dozen out of curiosity. I haven't even opened them, they say you need a hammer to open these scary thing.

I swear, i freaked out when i saw these voodoo like item. First thing that went to my mind "are they little bats?" i then looked closer, it looked like an evil head staring back at you!! lol!! then it also look like a bulls head w/ horns and all.

I didn't have the guts to touch nor pick them up, until the lady beside me told me what they were. They are called water caltrop another kind of water chestnuts. They say these are seasonal product sold especially during Moon festival .

BEEF TENDONS

In the Philippines, this dish is usually served as "Pulutan" w/c means foods that goes well w/ beer or hard drinks. I love these served w/ steamed white rice.

Ingredients:

Beef Tendons- about 2 pcs.
½ c scallions chopped (for garnish)
Ginger about an inch (julienne)
2 star anise
4 T soy sauce
1 T sherry wine
2 gloves garlic minced
1 med sized onion -sliced
Pepper flakes or Sriracha hot sauce
Oil for sauté
sesame oil
Salt & P (to taste)
2 T sugar
1 T vinegar

½ cup slurry (cornstarch and water)***
*** slurry is a thickener agent ( estimate only - 1 T cornstarch, ½ c cold water)

Boil and cook tendons w/ ginger, onions, 1 star anise, 1 T soy sauce and S&P about an hour or unitl tendons are cooked. Tendons gets tender and gelatinous when cooked.
Discard liquid used in boiling tendons. Slice tendons in cube-bite sizes. Set aside.
Sauté garlic, onions, ginger until aromatic.
Add in 1 star anise, 3 T soy sauce, 1 T sherry wine, 2 T sugar, sriracha hot sauce, vinegar and S&P and sliced tendons.
At this time you have to taste the seasoning.
Let simmer until all ingredients are incorporated and tendons absorbed the flavor.
Lastly, add the slurry to thicken sauce. Add slurry slowly depending on the consistency you like.
Serve hot and garnish w/ scallions and drizzle a little of sesame oil

ENJOY!!!

KIMCHI STEW

Pls. check Here for the Kimchi recipe.

I don't have any measurements for this dish. It's a matter of how much you want to make.

Ingredients:

Pork belly or pork butt (cut into cubes)
Green onions
Tamarind paste (I use sinigang mix (a Filipino tamarind mix)***

Water
S&P to taste

Kimchi

***Use vinegar in lieu of tamarind paste if not available.

Bring cubed pork to a boil. Add S&P let it boil until pork is cooked and tender. Add kimchi depending how hot you want your stew. Taste and if it's not sour enough for you, add tamarind paste. I usually add the whole sachet of the sinigang mix. Bring to a boil again until all ingredients are incorporated then lastly add the green onions.

I serve this w/ steamed white rice.

PAM'S CARAMEL APPLE

Pam went apple picking w/ her friends before she left for a "long long vacay" in Chicago. She made 2 apple dishes- Caramel Apple and Apple Pie.

There are still apples left so i'm making apple butter as i'm posting this blog. The house smells so good..Autumn is here!!!


Ingredients:

Six apples, 1 (14 oz) package individually wrapped caramels, 2 T milk.

Process:
Remove stem from each apple, Push a craft stick into the top. Place unwrapped caramels and milk in a microwave safe bowl and zap in the microwave for 2 minutes, stirring once. Let caramel cool briefly.

****To make them more authentically Autumnal, use sturdy sticks, and use these as the handles for these sweet treats.

APPLE CHIPS and APPLE ALMOND SALAD.

After all the apple butter, apple pies, apple muffins i have made. I have two other simple yet healthy ways to serve apples, apple chips and apple almond salad.

Chips, one of our favorite snack esp. autumn season.
Salads are always my go to lunch or dinner.

I don't have a food dehydrator so i make my chips using the oven at a low temp. No specific variety of apple is needed. No peeling is necessary, i like mine unpeeled for a rustic look and to achieve that curly effect and maintain the starlike shape in the middle.

All you need are the following:

Mandoline to slice your apples , but using your knife skills in slicing very thin and uniformed sliced apples is good as well=;)
Confectioners sugar
cinnamon
nutmeg (optional)

Mandoline is the best tool to make apple chips.

Preheat oven and set at 300 degrees F.
Lay and spread out sliced apples on a silpat or parchment paper lined baking sheets.
Take out seeds as you spread the slices.
Sprinkle w/ cinnamon, nutmeg then confectioners sugar and then flip and repeat process.
Bake for at least an hour, no more than that, it'll burn!
Flip apples half way through the baking.
I usually let the chips sit for few minutes to cool down and become crunchy.
Keep and store in airtight container.

APPLE ALMOND AND CHICKEN SALAD

SLICED APPLES, ROASTED ALMONDS, ROTISSERIE CHICKEN (STORE BOUGHT), BABY ARUGULA SALAD BLEND, OLIVE OIL AND WHITE BALSAMIC VINAIGRETTE

ENJOY!!!!

APPLE CRUMB MUFFINS

This is a California Blue Ribbon Winner recipe by a friend of mine Marina who is also a food editor for Taste of Home Magazine. She's got more great accomplishments check HERE


For this recipe, she suggested to use gala, Fuji or Golden Delicous. I used gala and cortland variety.

Y: 12 muffins.


3 1/2 C Flour
3 C peeled and chopped apples (i chopped them small)
2 C sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 C vegetable oil
1 1/2 c walnuts, chopped
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c raisins
Sifted confectioner's sugar
dash of nutmeg ( my addition)
1/3 cup milk (pls. check ****, i didn't have buttermilk)

***Marina's footnote was to add 1/3 cup buttermilk if desired, or if mixture is too dry.

Preheat oven to 30 degrees F.
Greased and flour muffin tins (I used muffin liners)
Combine flour, apples, sugar, salt, soda and cinnamon in a large bowl.
Stir in oil, milk, walnuts, raisins and vanilla. Mix well.
Divide batter into prepared tins and bake 30 minutes. (I cooked mine for 40 minute coz i know my oven will not cook the muffins in 30 minutes)
If desired lightly sprinkle tops of muffins w/ sugar and bake as directed.
When completely cooled dust w/ sifted confectioners sugar (W/c i forgot to do so)

ENJOY!!!!

APPLE BUTTER

This is my first time making apple butter. I first saw and learned about apple butter at the farmers market and was determined to make them during apple season. Well, this will not be my last, i'm definitely making more of this.
Great as holiday gift!

I got this recipe from Dinner and Drinks with some tweaking ofcourse=;)

Ingredients:

10 big apples or 12 medium apples, peeled cored and diced
2 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 C apple cider
2 1/2 pumpkin pie spice
1 1/2 T lemon juice

Mix all the ingredients in a slow cooker, cover and cook on low for 8 hours.
Puree the cooked apples ( I used my immersion blender), you can also mash the apples if you want some texture.
Cook uncovered on low heat for 30 minutes just to thicken the mixture.
Store in an airtight container in the fridge.

*Shelf life 3 weeks inside the fridge.

I've been enjoying the apple butter on my toast every morning.

APPLE BUTTER FRENCH VANILLA ICE CREAM WANTON NAPOLEONS (OCT. DARING COOKS CHALLENGE PART 2

This is my wanton dessert challenge. Hope this will make me win Jaden's Steamy Kitchen cookbook!!!

Ingredients:

Wanton wrappers - fried
homemade apple butter - will blog the recipe asap
french vanilla ice cream
mint leaves for garnish.