Tuna Salad Sandwich

A very simple, easy to make and delightful sandwich. 

My husband personally requested for me to make a tuna salad sandwich. He probably missed the taste of tuna and mayonnaise, so I rush myself to the supermarket and  get all the ingredients that I need. So nice to live close to the mall. =) 

Here's the list of ingredients:

1 can of tuna in water, drained

1/2 cup of mayonnaise 

1 onion finely diced 

1tbsp calamansi juice/ lemon juice

lettuce leaf 

cucunber sliced

pinch of salt 

dash of pepper

1. In a medium bowl mix tuna, mayonnaise, onion celery salt and pepper. 

2. Spread the tuna salad on the bread and top with lettuce, tomatoes and cucumber.

3. Serve and enjoy ! 

Mango Salsa with Jicama

The sweetness of ripe mango, crunchiness of jicama and the chopped tomatoes. Yum!

What I love with this appetizer is it won't take long to prepare.Just chopped all the ingredients and toss in bowl. 

Here are the ingredients:

1 big ripe mango chopped

1 jicama chopped

1 onion chopped

2 tomatoes chopped

2 Tbsp fish sauce (patis)

cilantro for garnish ( optional) 

Toss all ingredients in a bowl. Add the fish sauce and stir and serve. 

Steamed Lapu lapu with lemongrass

I was rushing to the wet market last Maundy Thursday, it's late afternoon and my fridge is still empty. After an hour my basket is half full with fish and veggies. Sadly there no available shrimp or crabs. I was a bit dissapointed.

Anyways, I got lapu lapu and tuna,I also bought some eggplants and a kilo of tomatoes. Oh yeah! 1 kilo of tomatoes. ;) I'll be posting on my next blog why I had to buy a kilo of tomatoes. For today. let me share a delicious recipe that  I adapted from wendyinkk. This dish is truly to die for and perfect for my Lapu lapu. Also, I tweaked it by drizzling sesame oil rather than the regular canola or vegetable oil. Hope you guys will like it =) 

Yummehh!

Here are the ingredients:

2-3 pieces of fish cleaned and scaled 

3 Tbsp of calamansi juice

2tbsp of fish sauce (patis)

5 cloves of garlic minced

1 bird eye chili sliced thinly

4 tbsp of lemongrass cut into 1 inch

1tbsp of sugar 

2 tsp of sesame oil (optional)

pinch of salt

dash of pepper

Aluminum foil

Here's what I did

1. In a small bowl combined fish sauce,calamansi juice, garlic, chili, salt and sugar.

2. Stir to make sure the salt and sugar are dissolved. Set aside.

3. Stuffed some garlic and lemongrass in the fish.

4 .Place the aluminum foil on the plate of the steamer.Arrange some lemongrass on the foil, that will be the   bed of your fish. Add 1 tbsp of the mixture to the fish bed. 

5. Arrange the fish, then add the remaining mixture and the lemongrass on top of the fish. Drizzle with some oil and steam for 20-25 minutes. 

5. Top with chopped cilantro and serve!

The light and spongy Calamansi Cupcake

I've heard about this famous muffin from Boracay, but I haven't tried it myself. When I went to Boracay couple of years back, I tried Jona's milkshake but skip to try this muffin. So for today, I'll bake this sweet sour cupcake.

Fresh from oven!

I was hesitant to bake this cupcake because I can't find an exact recipe that can vouch yumminess and fluffiness.So what I did is, I used the orange cupcake recipe from Kitchentigress then replace the orange by calamansi. I also tweaked the recipe by adding more flour and sugar.. 

Calamansi Cupcake

Light and fluffy =)

Here are the ingredients of Calamansi Cupcake.

10 grams glucose

2 large eggs

50 grams cake flour

50 grams caster sugar

5 pcs calamansi

100 grams corn oil



1.Pre heat oven to 180 degrees. Line the cupcake pan with paper liners.

2. In a mixing bowl, combine glucose, eggs and caster sugar. Beat on high speed for 5 minutes till it       reach ribbon stage. Gradually decrease the speed.

3. Sieve half of the cake flour on the mixing bowl. Using a whisk gently mix the flour till you don't see any lumps.

4. Add the remaining half of the cake flour, whisk gently again till no visible lumps.

5. Stir the corn oil and calamansi juice.

6. Add the calamansi with oil in the batter

7. Using a spatula, slowly scrape and fold the batter until it get's even and till you dont see any       streaks of oil.

8. Bang the mixing bowl twice/ thrice to your worktop to prevent big air bubbles in the batter.

9. Fill almost 90% of  the cupcake liner and bake for 15 minutes. Place the tray on the bottom of the oven.

10. Cool down and serve!

Fried fish with Pan fried eggplant

In line with the Lenten season, I will share some easy peasy seafood recipe that everyone can enjoy! For today's dinner I cooked fried fish best to eat with fried eggplant. This recipe is a sure hit to my family hope yours is too.

Pan fried eggplants 

Fried Salay- salay

Here are the ingredients: 

oil for frying

1 kilo of fish ( whatever you heart's desire. Cleaned and scaled)

3 pieces long eggplants sliced lengthwise

1 onion sliced thinly

1 stalk scallions chopped

1 small red bell pepper sliced thinly

2 tbsp soy sauce

1. In a pan heat the oil and add the onion. Cook until browned.

2. Add the bell pepper and cook for 2-3 minutes. Set aside.

3. On the same pan, pan fried the eggplant till both sides are golden brown. Set aside.

4. Again, on the same pan add more oil and pan fried fish till browned. 

While frying the fish, arrange the eggplant on a clean plate. Add the onion and bell pepper on top. Drizzle with soy sauce and add the scallions on top.

Once the fish are all cooked serve with fried eggplant. 

Pancit Canton Pinoy Style

As I checked my fridge, I saw some cabbage and baguio beans.I also have some left over squid from last night's dinner. So I thought why not cooking it for lunch.I was craving for real pancit canton for days now.So here is very simple canton recipe .It is delicious and easy to follow especially for beginners.

Here are the ingredients.

oil

1 pack 250 grams pancit canton (egg noodles)

250 grams chicken liver halved

150 grams squid sliced into rings

3 cloves garlic

1 small onion sliced thinly 

100 grams baguio beans

1 small cabbage sliced into strips

1 small red bell pepper julienne

2 tbsp oyster sauce

3 tbsp soy sauce

salt and pepper to taste

1 cup of water 

1 knorr chicken cube

1. Cook the pancit canton as per instruction.

2 In a large pan with oil, saute garlic onion and squid.Cook for 3-4 minutes until the squid color changed to white. Add the chicken liver and wait for 3-5 minutes to completely cook the liver. Stir regularly. 

3. Add water and chicken cube. Bring to a boil. 

4 Add the oyster sauce, soy sauce stir regularly. Continue cooking for 2-3 minutes.

5. Add the baguio beans, bell pepper and cabbage. Continue stirring until vegetable get tender. Dont overcooked the veggies. 

6. Add the pancit canton in the pan and toss to combine. Continue tossing until some of the liquid are absorbed. Cook for 2 minutes and drizzle with sesame oil. Serve hot. 

Marble Butter Sponge Cake

Hi everyone and welcome to my blog! :) For today I'll show you how to bake Marble butter sponge cake. I got this recipe from Kitchen tigress, and this is my second attempt in baking this delicious cake.

Let me show you the first cake I bake.

Doesn't look appetizing eh? 

Alright I know it doesn't look like a cake. Hahaha! From the start I knew there is something wrong because I added 1/3 cup of milk instead of 2 tbsp. Yikes! Kitchen tigress ingredients measurement is on grams. Sadly, I am no good at math so I just googled the equivalents online and I made a huge mistake. :( 

To prevent that mistake again I bought myself a handy dandy scale.I also jotted notes of the ingredients from grams to cup. Makes my life easier the next time I bake it. 

The scale and notes (scale for 259.75 at SM ) 

Enough with the talking, here are the ingredients we need. 

60 grams unsalted butter (that's 3/4 of one butter stick)

45 grams of cake flour (1/3 cup ) 

30 grams of full fat milk cold (2Tbsp +1/2 tsp)

20 grams of egg white (1 large egg ) 

1 tsp vanilla

1/16 tsp salt ( I skipped this I'm using salted butter)

45 grams of egg yolk  (egg yolks from 3 large eggs) 

105 grams egg white (egg whites from 4 large eggs)

1/16 cream of tar tar 

50 grams castor sugar 

1 tsp cocoa

Pre heat oven to 160 degrees. Prepare all ingredients above. 

Put butter in a pan and cook in medium heat. Stir with whisk till it bubble. 

Add the cake flour and continue whisking till combined. 

Remove from pan and transfer in a bowl. Add milk.

Wait for 1 minute till the batter cools down, and add the tsp vanilla.

Mix vigorously using a whisk 

Add the egg yolks one by one and mix thoroughly after each egg yolk addition.

Set mixer to medium speed.Mix the 105 grams of egg white till frothy. Add the cream of tartar. Whisk/mix  the egg white till it forms a foam. Add the castor sugar gradually. Continue whisking till it reached soft peak stage. Reduce to slow speed till firm peak stage. 

The yolk mixture is now slightly bubbly.Stir in with whisk to remove the bubbles. Add the egg whites in 3 batches. Scrape and fold using a spatula after each addition to make sure it is well combined.

Get 20 grams or 2tbsp of mixture in a small bowl and mix it with cocoa.

Pour the batter in a cake pan in 3 batches and dot with cocoa using a skewer after each addition. 

Tap pan on the worktop 3 times to remove bubbles.

Bake cake for 25 minutes in the bottom of the oven. After 25 minutes transfer the cake to the middle and increase the temperature to 180 degrees. Bake for 10 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

2nd attempt

Okay, so here is how it looks like after I cool it down on the rack. I made another mistake by adding all purpose flour instead of cake flour. Too bad my cake didn't rise,:( Well, compared to the first cake I can say that it is a success! It taste good and perfect to pair with my brewed coffee.

I will keep this post up to date till I make this recipe perfect . =)

Begginner's tools for Baking

This post is somewhat helpful if you like to bake but a bit hesitant because you are not equipped with proper tools. As I get myself into baking lately, I realized that it is something enjoyable and fulfilling.

If baking is what your heart desire but having second thoughts bcause of the tool's price, fret not. Here's a basic list to jump start your new hobby. :) 

Of course you need an oven to bake so I will not include that on the list. 

Bowls

Mixing bowls - when I started baking I only have the white ceramic bowl. It's okay at the beginning since I'm just baking cookies.But when I tried out to bake some cakes I can't fold my batter so I have to buy bigger ones. I bought the stainless mixing bowl at SM for 149.75.

cooling rack | wooden spoon | rubber spatulas | whisk

I was so excited to bake the first time that I use fork to mix my batter.And it's a flop ! :(
In baking it is essential to buy a whisk and spatula. Whisk is to properly mix or fold the batter and the spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl to mix all ingredients together.

measuring cups and spoons

Sadly baking isn't a guessing game.All measurement of ingredients should be accurate. Accuracy is the key to bake a tasty and mouthwatering recipes. I scored my measuring cups and spoons at SM for 49.75.

Baking Pans

I started with the muffin pan then my loaf pans and so on. You don't need to panic buying when it comes to baking pans I'm just a little OA when it comes to mine. Baking pan ofcourse will depends on what you would like to bake. So think first before purchasing a new pan. 

Other essential tool is hand mixer. But if you have a strong arms then just go for the manual mixing. :) 

Gong Xi Fa Cai ! The Binondo Experience

Along Ongpin St Binondo



It was my first time to visit Binondo with a full pack of people. Gosh! we cant hardly walk along Ongpin Street. Though it was a tiring and its like a battle to find for a place to eat the girls and I had so much fun. 

Special Lumpiang Sariwa 50 pesos

It was almost lunch time when we arrived at Chinatown. Our stomachs are growling so we decided to eat at New Eastern Garden.  We ordered their famous Lumpia, kikiam, braised tofu and lomi. I personally like the tofu. The lumpia and kikiam taste good too, while the Lomi is overcooked. Overall we had a good eats at affordable price. 

After lunch we went back to Ongping St.This time our goal is to buy tikoy and hopia plus to watch a dragon dance. Luckily, when we get to the Binondo Church the dragon dance just started. 

The Dragon 

Dancing Dragon

After the dragon dance and this dragon ate all the money the girls and I decided to drop by at Divisoria. (sayang eh malapit na). Unfortunately we never had a time to buy hopia and tikoy as all eng bee tin are jampacked. Too bad. :( 

It was truly colorful and a good experience to celebrate Chinese New Year with the Chinoys in Binondo. Feng shui, hopia, tikoy, dragon dance and the all those lucky charms are the staples of Binondo.  Gong Xi Fa Cai!  

Di naman Chinese si pope ah ! :P

The Great Ilocandia Trip

For a change my family decided to spend our new year up north. And of course I am in charge for our itinerary. Since it is peak season I booked our hotel accommodations two months in advance.

For our hotel I booked 3 days two nights in Sabrina Beach Home for 2000 per night.Staff are just okay. Sometimes they're accommodating most of the time they're not.




Saud beach

Our room is spacious and clean. It has two double bed and ensuite toilet and bath . No television and  view from our window.

The comfort room is just okay with no free toiletries. 

I can't say it is a recommended beach home for the lack of amenities such as good wifi , complimentary breakfast and toiletries.

Anyways, here is our itinerary:

8:00pm -7:00am - Manila to Pagudpud (I purchased our bus tickets from Florida, Kamias. Fare P700)
8:00am to 12nn  Rest at Sabrina Beach home
12:nn to 1:00pm lunch at Sabrina
1:00 to 5:00pm beach bumming at Saud beach
5:00 to 7:00 pm rest and getting ready for dinner.
7:00 pm to 9:00pm dinner at Emohruo
9:00 pm to 10:00 pm beach bumming
10:00 onwards lights off

Day 2

7:00 am to 8:00 am breakfast at Sabrina
8:00 am to 6:pm Pagudpud North and South tour.


Sabrina Beach Resort
contact number : Globe – 0916.591.5857 (Regine)
                       Smart – 0928.984.7125 (Rina)