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!!!!!