Buko Pandan Salad Special

I am proud to share with you this recipe made with the effort and personal touch of my eldest daughter, Sophia Camille.

Lately, I noticed how "Ate Camille" as we always called her, started to showed her interest to cooking. She used to stay beside when I am starting preparing for our meal until its done.

She used to named foods and asked me if I knew how to prepare it. Evey time I replied yes, she then immediately asked me to please teach her how to make it. She always asked me when will I start teaching her how to cook. When I asked her why she wanted to know how to cook as early as her age,she will then replied, "Mama, there were kids younger than me who joined recently ended Judy Ann's cooking show, the Junior Master Chef."  Maybe those little kids really influenced her to show up her interest into cooking as early as this time.


As starting point, last Saturday I teached her how to prepare one of her favorite dessert. From jelly preparation, cutting, blending of mixture until its completely done. I saw the excitement on her face while preparing for this foods, finding out what will be the results of her effort as well as the reactions of her tasters when served. 

It's serving time... I just noticed how she smiled and snobbed when her Papa and sister, Iya Samantha, told her, "Wow, ang galing na ni Ate Camille magluto, uy mag-a-asawa na yan, kaya nagpapaturo na kay Mama"...

Ingredients:

6-8 pieces Buko, thinly strips, drained well
1 pack flavored gulaman, prepared according to package instruction, cut into squares
1 bottle Nata de Coco, drained and set aside
1 250ml All Purpose Cream
1 300ml Condensed Milk

Preparations:

1. Blend all purpose cream and condensed milk in a bowl
2. Add gulaman cubes, nata de coco, buko meats to the cream mixture
3. Chill for 2-3 hours or overnight before serving
4. Optional: may served ala "Supreme"

Supreme Service:

1. Get 2 glass punch bowls, one must be slightly bigger that the other.
2. Put ice cubes and about 2 cups of water in a bigger bowl.
3. Put the smaller bowl on top of the bed of ice, then place desired serving size of prepared salad
4. An elegant presentation to chilled foods.

Then suddenly I realized, time really runs so fast. Our little baby now started to find and explore herself to learn new things into this magical world.  

We cannot control the movement of time. I just prayed that she remains smart and simple until she reaches all her dream in life.

Let me share with you some picture of her when she was still 2 and 5 years old. We love you very much Ate Camille...

Again, thank you very much for viewing. God bless us all.

Buchi Special with Ube Filling

Buchi is a sesame seed covered pastry made from glutinous rice flour with bean paste filling. Nowadays, It becomes one of favorite Filipino dessert which is an adaptation of Chinese delicacies.

I like to eat Buchi  and used to order it whenever available at particular restaurants. But I started to crave for it when I tasted Hap Chan Restaurant's served Buchi that's so yummy and chewy. They used purple yam as filling instead of lotus cream that makes it different from the others.

Since then, every time we will visit Waltermart Makiling where Hap Chan Restaurant branch is present, we used to dropped by there to order some for take out. I and my youngest daughter, Iya really loves its taste but since the price is quite expensive, we can't order much.

From then, I started to looked for its recipe on my collected recipe books, compilations, online research and asked some friends who also loves to cook. I had so much interest to know how to prepare Buchi to give myself a try! I just had a big big hope then that after trying it, result of my experiment would somehow same as what I used to buy at the restaurants.

Last December 31, 2011 in preparation for New Year's Eve at around 3PM, I started to prepare the needed ingredient to start this recipe. I was really excited then, doing all my best effort to prepare something new for my family.

When everything was done and time to taste, I said to myself "SUCCESS! I made it!" My family likes the food, truly such a delectable treat and worth trying for. It's crispy on the outside while soft and chewy on the inside! Great savings, I was able to prepare much more than my expectation. We enjoyed eating together, shared some with our neighbors and cousins.

As I truly enjoy doing this recipe, hope you feel the same as way in trying this out.

Happy Cooking!

Preparation Time: 45 - 60 minutes
Cooking Time: 3 ~ 5 minutes
Yield: 80 pcs

Ingredients:

Dough

    7 cup glutinous rice flour
    1 big can evaporated milk
   2 cup water
    ¼ cup sugar
   1 cup sesame seeds
    4-5 cup cooking oil

Filling:

    3 - 4 cup cooked ube yam (available at supermarket & groceries)

Procedure:

1. In a bowl, mix well glutinous rice flour, milk, sugar and water until you have a crumbly dough.
2. Scoop about 1-2 Tbsp dough and shape into a ball (depends to your desired size)
3. Press the center of the dough until there’s a hollow spot in the center. Fill the center with around  ½  - 1 Tbsp cooked ube. Seal and shape into a ball again
4. Place the sesame seeds in a bowl then roll the ball-shaped dough over it one by one. Make sure that the seeds stick on the dough.
5. In a pan, over medium heat, deep fry the dough until the color turns light brown (about 3 to 5 minutes) Do not overcooked, it will pop-up where some filling may comes out of the ball
6. When done, remove the cooked buchi from the pan and drain on layers of paper towels.
7. Serve as snack or dessert!

Enjoy eating!