A Scientist in the Kitchen

Wonder what the picture is? It looks like a mass of fungi growing but actually they’re not. The green ones are powdered Japanese green tea or matcha. With all the antioxidant boost from tea, it does make yogurt even more healthier! I learned about green tea ice cream from a Japanese colleague at Colorado State where I stayed for a few months. He had lots of green tea powder straight from his grandmother’s farm back in Japan and shared them with me. It made my ice cream nights better. So back home, I always ask friends who go to Japan to buy me a pack or two. Matcha also goes well with yogurt, freshly made from my university’s dairy farm.

ARF/5-A-Day Tuesday is hosted courtesy of Sweetnicks.

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This was my mom’s recipe for my dad’s birthday celebration last Sunday. Two colorful varieties of sweet potato sweetened with a salty twist.

The dish is simple to make. Peel sweet potatoes and cut into cubes. Put in a pan, add water to cover the potato, 1/2 cup to 1 cup of brown sugar and 1/2 cup of butter. Bring everything to a boil and simmer till the sweet potatoes are cooked. Remove the sweet potatoes from the pan and continue to boil the syrup till it is thick. Mix the syrup and sweet potatoes before serving. This is best served warm. The blend of colors really looked lovely, I wish I’d taken a really great picture so I could have a ordered a custom picture framing for it and hang it on the kitchen.

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Ever wondered how a market looks like in other parts of the world? Check out “To market, to market”. Or you can share yours, too.

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Purple yam is a type of yam that has a very distinct violet color and is popular in the Philippines. We call it ube in the Philippines. It is cooked with milk and sugar and is eaten as a sweetened dessert called haleyang ube which has a bright violet color. It is an ingredient for halo-halo, a favorite Filipino dessert during the summer. While the tuber is seasonal, Filipinos get to enjoy ube-flavored ice cream all year round. When in the Philippines, you might come across a purple-colored ice cream, that’s it! That’s ube ice cream.

Ube is not often sold in the market so haleyang ube is usually served on special occasions. This Christmas, my sister receive ube powder developed by the University of the Philippines at Los Baños (UPLB), my alma mater. So I wasted no time in making haleyang ube for the holiday cooking. Typically, haleyang ube is made from mashed ube, so you have to boil the ube tuber till soft then mash it which could take some time and is really tiring. You mix the mashed ube with milk, sugar and a bit of butter and cook slowly till the mixture is thickened. That’s why I was happy to receive the ube powder - no more boiling and mashing ube till my arms ache!

With the ube powder, think of all the possibilities! Not just the haleya, but I have some rice desserts I would like to try out with ube flavor. Or perhaps homemade ice cream! Yummy!

Haleyang Ube

50 grams ube powder
3/4 cup milk
condense milk (add according to your preferred sweetness)
2 tbsp butter

Here’s how to it:

1. Mix ube powder and milk. Add condense milk according to your preferred sweetness. Let stand for at least 10 minutes.

2. Melt butter in a pan. Add the ube-milk mixture and stir constantly. Use low heat. Continue stirring until mixture has thickened.

3. Place in a molder that has been lined with butter. Cool down and refrigerate a few hours before serving.

Never to early for Weekend Herb Blogging! Cheers to Kalyn for making this event possible and for hosting this week’s edition!

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I play soccer with a bunch of international students on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On Sunday, November 11, we’re joining the Alaska Cup, the biggest and most prestigious soccer tournament in the Philippine. Soccer emthusiasts of all colors, ages and sizes from all corners of the Philippines gather for “THE BEAUTIFUL GAME”. We also have baseball games, complete with baseball trophies too, right in our backyard. Though soccer is still my game.
This brings to mind one American student with us several years back, Addie, who tried to join us but couldn’t seem to get the rhythm of the game. So she became our photographer instead. We had a tournament once, and our team emerged champions. So to celebrate the occasion, we had a potluck party with each one bringing a dish from his/her country. We had curry, eggs, pasta salad, pancit, dal and chapati. There were two of us Filipinos, too lazy to cook Filipino food. So we ordered Pancit Malabon from a restaurant here. Those who were not able to cook, brought the drinks. The highlight though were the freshly baked apple pies made by Addie. It was my first time to taste a freshly baked apple pie. Now, that’s really American, I think. Here’s the recipe as she shared it with us.

Oil Pie Crust: about 2 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 teaspoon salt, 3/4 cup oil, 1/3 cup milk stir it up, put half of it between 2 sheets of wax paper and roll it out (or, if you dont have those things, just smush it like i did)

Apple Pie: about 6 apples (i used Gala apples, but tart cooking apples are good too), about 1 1/4 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons flour, 2/4 teaspoons cinnamon, little bit of nutmeg, about 2 tablespoons of butterpeel and slice the apples less than 1 cm thick (THANKS PAUL!!! he did that for me). stir together the dry ingredients. stir apple slices in dry mixture. put the mixture in the crust and cut pieces of butter onto the top. put another layer of crust on top (yes, it should be completely covered, but i had no rolling pin or wax paper to do that—so just smushing works well too)
This is my favorite apple pie recipe which I make on special occasions. I still have to bake this for my current soccer team though. First things first, we’ve got to win some games this Sunday!

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It’s another week of blogging on herbs and vegetables and time for a round-up on Weekend Herb Blogging. Head over to The Expatriate’s Kitchen for this week’s round-up.

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