recipe

Chai recipe for these cold winter mornings

3 February 2018 by Nathalie Abejero Leave a Comment

My favorite chai recipe:

Bring to a boil 2:1 ratio of Black tea:Lipton in ~2c water
Add the following whole spices. I usually just toss a couple of each in to the pot or tea sock.
- Star anise
- Cardamom
- Whole cloves
- Allspice
- Cinnamon (half a stick)
- Ginger (bash up some slices)
- Bay leaves
Turn heat off
Add palm sugar to taste
Add 1 cup whole milk at the last part

Filipino food: Buko Pandan

17 August 2013 by Nathalie Abejero Leave a Comment

As with any recipe, there are so many creative ways to have this dessert. It can be a drink or a thick creamy dessert. I first had it at Nathaniel’s Bakeshop on Timog Ave in Manila. (If you are in Manila, you have got to make a stop at this shop to try all manner of Filipino desserts and food. It’s on a foodie strip, so there are other restaurants and chains on the same road).

Again, I haven’t the foggiest clue how to make this since Openg our helper in Manila whipped it up often while I was busy with a newborn. So here again is a recipe straight from Jun-Blog, below. His pictures look more like the creamy dessert than a drink. Check out his range of Filipino food recipes. I think I can spend hours drooling over his pictures. [Click! Add rss feed!]

Buko Pandan Recipe, makes 6 to 8 servings (recipe from Jun Belen)

2 3-ounce packages Alsa green, unflavored gulaman
4 pandan leaves, washed and tied into a simple knot
1 12-ounce jar nata de coco, drained
1 16-ounce bag frozen, shredded young coconut, thawed and drained
1/2 cup Nestlé cream
1/3 cup condensed milk
Prepare gulaman according to package instructions. Dissolve gulaman in a pot of water, add pandan leaves, and bring to a boil while stirring constantly. Remove pandan leaves and pour gulaman into two 8×8-inch glass baking pans. Once gulaman has set, cut into 1/2-inch cubes.
Combine gulaman, nata de coco, young coconut, cream, and condensed milk in a large bowl and mix well. Serve chilled.

Easy-peasy plain yogurt recipe my Bengali neighbor taught me

9 April 2012 by Nathalie Abejero Leave a Comment

No thermometer, no measuring cups, no heating pads, no double-boiling appartus! Of course, we’re in the tropics so it’s easier to do here than if we were back home in the temperate zone.

I love plain yogurt but for a long time the most common yogurt in Phnom Penh were the sweet flavored ones from Thailand and Vietnam. Thankfully our friend and neighbor Kishore from Bangladesh taught me how. It’s so simple, with everything just eyeballed and estimated.

Easy plain yogurt recipe:

~1/2 cup plain yogurt as a starter – I use the Garden Center Cafe’s probiotic yogurt. It’s a natural probiotic yogurt with active cultures. I hear Stoneyfield is a good starter. You can use the yogurt you make as starter in future batches.
~1 box of milk – The 1 liter box milk is what you usually find here, although organic and natural labels are starting to make appearances at the natural food grocery stores.

Directions:

Heat the milk on the stove, med-high, until small bubbles start to form and it starts frothing. I don’t stir it, so that film forms on top. See the pic below. Turn the burner off.
Let it sit and cool until the milk is about lukewarm, ~20 minutes. Again that film is on top, hardening. I don’t touch it.
When the milk is lukewarm, add about 1/2 or 3/4 cup of your starter yogurt. Mix it all gently in a glass bowl.
Cover the bowl and place in a warm spot, like in an oven which you aren’t going to be using, where it will be not be bumped, moved or otherwise disturbed for around 12 hours.
Let sit overnight.
When it has reached a solid state, it is ready. Place in containers and stick them in the refrigerator.