Cinnamon Kamote-cue (Sweet Potato Cinnamon Caramel)

A teleportation machine is very much welcome.

Scene 1: Trapped in a labyrinth with a bunch of hungry zombies. What do you do? Scene 2: Running breathlessly alone, again with this hungry bunch of zombies. No where to go....

Nope, that's not the scenario of the latest horror flick I saw but the product of my corrupted mind. I tell you, for two consecutive nights I have been "night-maring" about these horrifying scenes. I don't need to be a rocket scientist to interpret what this means.

In two weeks time, I will be off to Philippines for a six weeks business cum pleasure trip. I am definitely excited to be back home but my fear of flying is camouflaging my joy. No glass of vodka nor a handful of sleeping pills and a good movie could calm me down on this looong 12 hours flight. I'm sweating, my fingers are starting to get numb...help me.

In time with my upcoming trip I'll be sending off some of this delicious copy cat of Camote-cue (Sweet Potato Barbeque in Cinnamon Caramel) Maria of Palachincka our lovely host for Sugar High Friday, this month's theme is all about copy cat sweets. Sugar High Friday is an event for sweet tooth people like me created by Jennifer of Domestic Goddess. Camote-cues are part of my sweet childhood food memories. They are better than lollipops because you can munch them without fear. And I can't wait to taste the real ones.

Camote Cue (Sweet Potato in Cinnamon Caramel)

about 1 -2 sweet potato (depending on the size) peeled and sliced
half a kilo of brown sugar
one cup of cooking oil
1 teaspoon of cinnamon powder
bamboo sticks

In your wok put your cooking oil and let it boil. Then add all your sliced sweet potato. Cook them for about 5-8 minutes. Then add your brown sugar directly. Stir them from time to time as the sugar melts. Once the sugar has completely caramelized add your cinnamon powder. Remove the sweet potato and let the oil drip. Serve them like barbecues using your bamboo sticks.




Try my other sweet recipes:
Beignets (French Donut)
Orange souffle

Pot au Feu (Beef Stew/ Nilagang Baka)

Head or Tail? (Tao o Ibon)

I don't know how most married couples' settle their differences when it comes to choices. I know for one, that if in my familial abode this kismet comes up. My husband and I try our best to deal with the issue like any civilized educated partners; we bicker about it until there's no more reason left. Once there are no more aces on both sides we resort to our final intelligent remedy of knowing who has the final say, we toss the coin. Well , we even used to do "paper and scissor stuff" but I already lost for life against him :-( after the last battle we did. Good thing I still have my chances with the "head or tail" thing.

Well as usual, one night many weeks ago, after having an eternal dispute on where possibly we could spend our out-of-the-country weekend getaway we thought of straightening this out with our "coin tossing", but our little girl entered the room and interrupted us. And with her cute little fingers she pointed out a place on the map. My hubby and I looked at each other, "that's so brilliant we should have thought about that long before", I snapped.

However, for the moment we'll definitely reserve the place she chose I mean, Antartica for a weekend trip sounds a little too impossible.

I am sending off a bowl of this steaming hot Pot au feu over at Maninas of Food Matters for her Eating with Seasons event. With the cool temperature here in France eating hot soups like this is very much in season. This reminds me so much of Filipino version of nilagang baka best eaten with some patis (fish sauce) and kalamansi. Yay!



Beef Pot au Feu ( Beef Stew / Nilagang Baka)

1 kilo of Beef (use three types of meat)
-meaty part, bony part, fatty and ligament part
1 cabbage quartered
3 carrots
1 big onion leeks
4 potatoes
4 sweet corn on the cob (optional)
rock salt
1 and a half liter of water

With your pressure cooker start by boiling your beef with water for one hour and a half together with some bouquet garni and rock salt. You can tie with some string your meat to be sure that they will rest intact during the cooking process. Add your vegetables, chronologically; cabbage first, then your carrots and onion leeks, potatoes and sweet corn. The sweet corn this is my filipino touch in this french soup :-)

Bon appetit!

Try my other soup recipes:

Pistou (Provencal Soup)
Fruit Minestrone

Banana Almond Dulche de Leche Bread

The dilemna...

The other day I didn't know that a pleasant surprise was waiting for me on our mailbox: my monthly paycheck. When I opened it my eyes almost dropped upon seeing how much I was paid for last month. Holy gracious! I never realised until today how generously I was paid by this company for the part-time job I am doing for them.

For the moment, I was in heaven. My stars were twinkling, I was already imagining how lavishly and stupidly I will spend this money: bags, shoes, perfume and clothes. Specially it's the "Sales" season in France. Yay! But then this euphoric moment didn't last that long when I realised that "Sales" just ended yesterday. Sigh. That came really close.

And just like Joey Tribiani, it took a while for me before I get the picture of the real problem here. Big salary is synonymous with higher tax imposed on household patrimony. Oh my, with hubby's recent salary increase and this..."He mustn't see this, I gotta burn this proof now ! "

I went to amazon.com, that's the fastest way of burning the evidence :-)

For banana lovers out there, here's my entry for Weekend Herb Blogging, that delicious blogging event created by Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen now in the caring wings of Haalo of Cook Almost Anything at Once. This week's host is the lovely Cheryl of Gluten Free Goodness. Check her out for droolworthy round-up.


Banana-Almond Dulche de leche Bread
for one loaf

200 g of flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
3 medium eggs
150 g of brown sugar
100 g of melted butter
10 g of melted butter for the baking dish
100 g of almond shivels
4 pieces of mashed over-ripe bananas
3 tablespoons of Home-made dulche de leche
a pinch of salt

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl: flour, sugar,salt and baking powder. Break the eggs and incorporate it with the dry ingredients. Pour in the melted butter. Add the dulche de leche. Mix the bananas and almonds. Mix well. Butter your baking dish and preheat the oven at 180° celsius. Pour the mixture on the loaf pan. Sprinkle the top with some brown sugar and almonds. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes. You can serve this with drizzles of dulche de leche and creme chantilly.


My other banana recipes:

Banana Chocolate Crepe
Banana Fake Tiramisu
Banana Nutella Swirl Muffin

Roast Pork with fried Apples and Apple sauce (Lechon con Manzanas)

Resisting to tempation.

There are three things I inherited from my dad: his hot-temperedness, his love for corny jokes and his addiction for food. I mean high in calories, artery exploding and not so good for the health food.

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So the other day, I had this craving to roast a pork. It wasn't just an ordinary craving for I really wanted to enjoy the crispy golden and sinful pork skin ala "lechon style" we love to enjoy in Philippines. The fattier the better. And as Oscar Wilde wisely put it, the only best way to get rid of temptation is yielding on it.

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Unfortunately, even before I could enjoy it my naughtty daugther was too fast for me :-)

ps. I must admit that I was such a pain in the ass for my parents when I was a kid. But my daughter inherited all my "naughty genes" plus the ones of my husband :-( she is beyond my powers.

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This is my entry for this week's Weekend Herb Blogging, the great event created by Kalyn and now in the caring hands of Haalo.This week is hosted by Dee of Daily Tiffin.




Roast Pork with apples (Lechon con Manzanas)
1.5 kg of pork loin
half a lemon
Salt
fresh rosemary and sages
some olive oil

for garnishing and sauce
about 5 golden apples (washed, cored and sliced)
one tablespoon of butter

for the sauce:
half a cup of home-made apple compote, 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, 1 tablespoon of butter

Rub pork with lemon, salt, sage, rosemary and olive oil. Roll it and tie it. Place the pork in a baking dish and cook in a preheated oven at 220° celsius for 20 minutes then reduce the heat to 180° celsius and cook for 45 minutes or until pork is cooked. While roasting, in a pan, fry your sliced apples with some butter. Set this aside. In a sauce pan melt the butter and put the apple compote and put the balsamic vinegar.

Her first attempt......

Her second attempt.....

Try my other pork recipes:

Lemon Pork Roast

Bloody Red Hot Chili Con Carne

A month ago, I was seated on the couch flipping the pages of my favorite fashion magazine when hubby arrived. "I bought a kilo of red kidney beans", he told me.

"Oh that's great", I coldly replied and continued reading.

He left the room frustrated.
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One afternoon, hubby hinted that he's been craving for something spicy for lunch. I looked at him and replied, " Well I'm not sure that adding chili on your carbonara will do the thing."

He left the room disappointed.

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We were in the bookstore choosing some reading materials for our upcoming vacation. When I caught him with a book on eating healthy, "We should eat more healthy stuff like beans it's good for building muscle." he told me.

"Well we're too old to build muscle, aren't we" I jokingly replied.

He turned his back upset.


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Last night I dreamt that I was cut into pieces tossed up in a casserole of boiling red matter, tomato sauce I suppose. With lots and lots of chili. Playing dream analyst still catching up my breath, "I wonder what this gory dream meant" I thought when I woke up.

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Today I finally decided to cook some chili con carne. When hubby smelled what I was cooking, he looked at me and said "That sounds delicious darling." He then added with a sneering smile on his face, "By the way, in case you don't know just repaired your broken computer that's been broken for a month now you can start blogging again."

He then left the room whistling.

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That's what I call an, "Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth."

This is of course my entry to Andrea's healthy monthly blogging event GYO, "Grow your own". Definitely not only for green thumbs but for all gourmet lovers outhere. This is recipe is great with your garden grown tomatoes and chilies. Go check out the round-up!

Chili Con Carne

half a kilo of ground beef
250 g of dry red beans (cook in pressure cooker until soft and mushy)
2 big onions chopped
2 red bell pepper
1 kilo of tomatoes
3 pieces of mild green chili peppers chopped
1 teaspoon of tomato paste
1 teaspoon of cumin seeds
1 teaspoon of cayenne powder (more or less depending on your taste)
3 tablespoons of olive oil
some salt and pepper

Start by putting your tomatoes, red bell peppers on an oven dish, put a tablespoon of olive oil and roast it in the oven for an hour at 200° celsius for forty minutes to sixty minutes. Once it's cold, peel off the skin and chopped them together. In a big casserole, put the rest of the olive oil and brown your onion. Add the ground beef then all the spices; cumin,cayenne, salt and pepper. Put the chopped chilis, roasted tomatoes and bell pepper. Stir. Add the tomato pasted and let it simmer over low fire.

As a rice topping it's perfect!

Try my other spicy dishes:

Canneloni Diablo
Devil's Beef Stew

Honey Walnut Cake with hot chocolate fudge

A very strange thing happened a week ago: it snowed here in Southern France.

Have you ever felt this weird feeling that you've been just zapped to another dimension. The normal blue sky cool weather and the fragrant green rosemary and thyme decor turned all of a sudden into an immaculately white blanket covering the landscape.

If you think it was fairylike well there's the other half of the story; our region was paralysed for a week (highways were inaccessible ) and oh my God we had some power interruption. While I would like so much to complain as normal french people does on situations like this, I went on the kitchen and tried to work on some magic to bring myself some sun. I was glad it worked for me; a slice of my walnut cake brought me to Tahiti for a moment.

And by the way, my daughter finally had her first taste of snow: literally and figuratively :-) he he he

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Ps. Oh my goodness I just realised how much I have been lagging behind my post and on checking out your blogs' guys. I am so "has been". I really feel so bad about it. I blame my busy schedule and "fourth world like" internet connection. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I'll try to make up.

And I'm sending this off to Lore of Culinarty for her fabulous Original Recipes blog event. Check out the round-up tomorrow.

Honey Walnut Cake
(my own recipe) for 4 slices
150 grams of flour
50 g of butter
1 egg
100 g brown sugar
1 big heap of honey
2 tablespoons of milk
100 grams of chopped walnuts
10 g of melted butter for greasing the pan
optional: chocolate hot fudge

Grease your baking pan and preheat the oven at 180°celsius. In a bowl mix the flour, sugar, melted butter and egg. Mix well. Add the honey and milk. Continue mixing well. Fold in the chopped walnuts. Pour on your greased pan and bake for 20 to 30 minutes. Serve with hot chocolate fudge on the top.

In front of our house.....

My little darling.....

Our parking area....

My slice of Tahiti...

My other cake recipes:
Mango Blueberry Opera Cake
Party Cake
Peanutbutter Chocolate Marble cake

Holiday Cheers

Here's a toast to all my gorgeous and cool blogging friends all over the world. Thank you for inspiring me with your creative recipes and for your "always" encouraging comments. Meeting you all virtually has made my daily life not only delicious but extremely exciting.

Thank you so much for making Dhanggit's Kitchen a part of your blogging life too.

May you all have happiness, serenity and an amazing 2009 ahead of you!