POM Syrup

If you remember last year, I had received a case of POM juice from the awesome folks at POM Wonderful. (here) I was contacted again recently by Ryan who had offered to send me another case of POM. You kidding me?! How could I refuse that? POM Wonderful is not just a juice you can drink, but you can also cook and bake with it too. It's also full of anti-oxidants and is healthy for you. I can't tell you how much I love this stuff. It really is the natural juice of the pomegranate fruit. Especially with Valentine's just around the corner, the heart matters on that day as well as love.

So I decide to make some syrup. I did buy some ice cream, so it felt just right. I made two batches. The first one I overcooked and burnt the sugar within as the mixture ended up becoming more candied-like rather than the smooth texture I wanted. This is definitely one of those recipes you sort of need to keep an eye out for. I was bummed that I wasted one bottle, but I was determined to make my syrup. The second time around I made sure to keep close watch. And I'm glad to say the second batch was a success. I drizzled a good helping of it over some vanilla ice cream. It's also good on pancakes, waffles, muffins, most baked goods. Forget store bought syrup. This is it!

Makes roughly 2 cups.

POM Syrup

8 oz POM juice
1 1/2 c granulated sugar

On medium to low heat in a saucepan, combine the POM juice and sugar. Cook until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture has reduced slightly (about 1/4 to 1/3). Remove from heat and let it cool before transferring into a sealed container.

Keep in the fridge. (It will not harden)

Goes great with ice cream, baked goods, pancakes, waffles, muffins, etc.

Banana Cue

I'm still in my summer Filipino treats mode. You already saw my Sago at Gulaman concoction. If not, go check it out after you finish reading today's delicious dish. I had bought a couple of plantains from the grocery a couple days ago. They looked fresh and there was only a few left. I took the opportunity to take 'em. You want to get them just right before they turn ripe. It's the best kind when you fry these puppies. Banana cue is another common treat found from street vendors in the Philippines.

They are plantains that are fried with brown sugar giving it a firm caramel coat. Kind of like candied bananas or almost like a bananas foster in a way. In the Philippine language, a banana is called saging (sa-ging). It's close relative treat is the turon (to-ron), which is a plantain and a piece of jack fruit wrapped in an egg roll wrapper, fried and coated with brown sugar. The banana cue is similar but it's strictly just the banana and served on a skewer. Easy portability. I'll be making the turon soon.

You'd think that frying a banana would cook it inside and out. Yes and no. The key is to just brown the outer layer, then sealing it with a brown sugar coating until it caramelizes. The outside of it has a nice firm sugar crust. When you bite into it, it's got a little itty-bitty crunch then you get into the nice, yellow, soft and warm inside of the plantain. My mom once told me she used to eat these with her classmates during recess when she was a little child.

I didn't put any time measurements as you need to keep an eye out on them. You got to get a feeling for them while they cook. I think that's the secret to making delicious banana cues. Can you see that chunky piece of crystalized sugar?? Those are the best parts. It goes really well with ice cream.

I could eat these all day. Have a piece of fruit while satisfying the sweet tooth, what could be better than that, right?



Banana Cue

2 Large Plantain (nearly ripe)
4 Tbsp brown sugar
Skewers

Oil (canola, vegetable, peanut = You choice)

Remove the skins of the plantains, cut them in half.

In a frying pan, heat some oil. Just enough to go half way up the banana. When the oil is really hot, carfully drop in the plantains. You'd want the outside to have a slight browning. Turn, if needed.

When the bananas have browned slightly all around, sprinkle the brown sugar. You may add more. Keep an eye while they fry you want the sugar to melt and coat the plaintains. Roughly 5-10min. turn them ocassionaly to cook all around.

When the sugar has completely coated the plantains and looks firm, remove from then oil and insert a skewer lengthwise. Two will fit on one stick.

Serve warm.

Pita Pizza #2: Sweet & Sour

Here's part 2 from the leftover goodies from my fridge and pantry. If you haven't seen part-1: Pita Pizza #1: Sausage. Check it out. Number 2 is a a sweet and sour pita pizza. It's a take on the pineapple and Canadian bacon pizza. Just minus the bacon, but full of fresh garlic.

I still had some sweet and sour sauce left. The nice thing about that sauce is that it keeps for a long time due to the vinegar. I had gotten a fresh pineapple from the grocery from last weekend that had just gotten ripe and cheese. It was perfect timing. Simple, easy and only takes minutes to put together.

All I can say is that it's really good. The sweet and sour sauce blends perfectly with the pineapple and cheese. The garlic adds a nice touch to it. I love my garlic. Have your favorite drink on hand because this is too good to not try.

Serves 1 or 2.



Sweet & Sour Pita Pizza

1 large pita bread
1/3 c sweet and sour sauce
1/2 c pineapple tidbits
1 c shredded mozzarella
2 large garlic clove (minced)


Preheat oven to 400˚F
Spread the sweet and sour sauce on the pita bread leaving room around the edge for the crust.

Top with the pineapple then cheese and garlic.

Baked for 10 min.

Sweet & Sour Veggies

After all that food from Saturday, I needed to have a relatively light meal. In comes the eggplant and some string beans. I had some leftover sweet and sour sauce saved from the Mini Tuna Burgers. And put two and two together and what do you get? Sweet and Sour Veggies. I didn't want to put too much effort in the kitchen with using any pots and pans. I decided on broiling them rather than baking. Shortens the cooking time for me.

Cut both vegetables into sizable sticks and broiled them. I only used a simple seasoning of olive oil, salt and pepper. After roughly 18-20 minutes, the string beans have a crisp texture, while the eggplant are nice and tender. Serve with some rice or eat alone.

Crisp and chewy. What more could you ask for?




Sweet & Sour Veggies

1/2 bundle String Beans (cut into 3-4 inch sticks)
1 Large round Eggplant (cut into 1/2 thick sticks)
1/2 c sweet and sour sauce
olive oil
salt
pepper


Preheat your broiler.

In a large bowl, toss the string beans and eggplant with olive oil, salt and pepper, coating it thoroughly.

Place on a flat baking sheet and put into the broiler for 18-20 min. After the first 5-10 min, give the eggplants and string beans a quick turn. Even out the cooking.

The eggplant will get nice and tender while the string beans will become nicely crisp.

When done pour over the sweet and sour sauce and lightly toss. Serve immediately.

Leche Flan

Flan. A classic dessert. In the Philippines it's usually called leche flan. It's the same name either way. Flan is flan is flan. I won't go into world history of it. Oyster Food & Culture would probably do a better job at giving you a descriptive history of this sweet dessert. I just eat them.

In the fridge were 4 egg yolks. I had tried making some meringue earlier in the week, only to have it end up being an epic fail. I was about to make an egg yolk scramble, but my mom had suggested leche flan. Ah, yes! One of my favorite desserts of all time. It was also something she had seen her ninang (pronounced nee-nahng, meaning godmother in Tagalog) cook many times before when she was a child.

The last time I had some was when I was in the Philippines exactly a year ago. My aunt makes then SUPER delicious. Getting a hold of those small tin can pans and diving in into the custard with all that syrupy goodness underneath. I was in heaven! This is how my mom remembered it and my interpretation in creating it. The result is one that brings back fond memories of her hometown.

The lemon adds a balance to the sweetness of the syrup. The key to making this is "low & slow".

This will make 3-4 small individual serving.



Leche Flan

Caramel syrup
1/3 c sugar
1/4 c water

In a sauce pan, melt the sugar over low flame until it's melted into a brown caramel liquid. make sure to stir occasionally to keep it from burning. There shouldn't be any lumps of sugar left. When it's fully liquefied, slowly add in the water. Not all at once. Then stir until the it forms into a syrup-like consistency.

Here's a good way to know when it is ready. Scrape a line down the center of the pan with a wooden spoon and if it takes a while for the syrup to cover the open gap your syrup is done. Don't ever cook it or at that point your making candy.

Then take 4 small tart containers or mini load pans and pour a nice layer of syrup in each. Make sure to coat the bottom evenly and let it harden. Set aside.


Custard
1 c evaporated milk
4 egg yolks (beaten)
1/4 c sugar
1/2 tsp lemon juice

Combine all ingredients into a small sauce pan on a low flame and stir constantly until sugar is dissolved and the mixture is slightly heated. Roughly 10-15min. Stirring constantly will help avoid the egg yolks turning into scramble yolks and combine all ingredients together. Then strain the custard mixture well into a bowl to remove any egg bits that may have cooked. Then ladle the mixture into the tart cups or mini loaf pans.

Cover the tart cups with wax paper or parchment paper and place in a steamer for 1 hour or until the custard is firm to the touch.

Note: You may use the water bath method if you don't have a steamer. Place the the tart cups in large deep roasting pan and put in an oven preheated to 325˚F. When the pan is in the oven, fill it with lukewarm water half way up the tart cup or mini loaf pan. This will prevent cross contamination of water and custard. The bake for 1 hour or until custard is nice and firm.


When finished, let it cool before placing on a plate. Serve with some ice cream or if you're going the Filipino-style serve with some Halo Halo. (I'll be doing that dessert soon.)

Cini Mini Bites with Cream Cheese Frosting

Now for the 4th and final recipe of the 4-part meal. I remember watching Barefoot Contessa on day and on the episode, Ina Garten had made some easy sticky buns.(Click here to view her recipe) It got me thinking on making some, but bite-sized. Here's my adaptation.

As I mentioned in the first of this 4-part post. Puff pastry usually comes in tri-folded sheet. The recipe below will use 1/3 of that pastry puff.

Serving size: 1/3 will generally make around 11 to 12 bites. One whole puff pastry will make 33 to 36 including edges.

The cream cheese frosting is similar to the cream cheese filling minus the strawberries.



Cini Mini Bites

1/3 Puff Pastry Sheet (cut at crease)
1 Tbsp Brown Sugar (plus 4 Tbsp extra)
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 Tbsp Toffee Bits
1 Tbsp chopped Pecan chips (plus extra)
1/4 tsp melted butter
4 Tbsp butter (softened)
all purpose flour

Preheat oven 400˚F

Place pastry puff on a well-floured flat surface. Longest side towards you. Sprinkle brown sugar over dough, leaving a little over 1/2" at the top for the edge crust. Then sprinkle ground cinnamon, toffee bits and pecan chips. Make sure to get all the other sides but that open 1/2"

Brush the melted butter on that open 1/2", then roll the the dough nice and snug from the bottom up. Cut into 3/4" pieces.

Cream together the extra 4 Tbsp butter and 4 Tbsp brown sugar on a small bowl.

For baking sheets: Place mini muffins on greased sheet and place a tiny dollop of the butter and brown sugar mix and sprinkle some extra pecan ships.

For mini-muffin pans: place a tiny dollup of the butter mix at the bottom of each cup. Then place one piece of the cinnamon bites on top.

Bake for 10min.

For mini-muffin pans: to remove mini-bites, flip the pan onto a flat surface.
For sheet pans: remove with spatula.


Cream Cheese Frosting
2 oz. Cream Cheese (roughly 4 Tbsp)
4 Tbsp Confectioner Sugar (powdered sugar)
1/4 tsp Vanilla Extract

Mix all three ingredients together in a small bowl


Putting it together: Place a nice dollop of frosting on each cini mini bite and enjoy!

Simple Sweet and Sour Sauce

Today I'll share with you my simple sweet and sour dipping sauce.

1/4 c. Apple Cider vinegar
1/4 c. Sugar
1/4 tsp. Salt
1/2 c. Stock or Water
2 tbsp. Cornstarch (dissolved in 2 tbsp water)
1 tbsp. Cooking Oil
2 tbsp. tomato ketchup
1/2 c Pineapple Juice

Combine vinegar, pineapple juice. sugar, salt, stock and cornstarch.
Heat oil on large wok or saucepan and "fry" tomato ketchup until near simmering. Then add the vinegar mix and boil until thickened. Let cool and serve with egg rolls, dumpling, or which ever side dish you prefer. It should look red-pink in color.

You can also add some chili pepper to give the sauce a nice kick.