Musings of a Traveling Chef

With my current work, I'm usually off on Thursday.  That means I get to bake or make desserts.  Today, I decided to try a brownies recipe from Bailiwick Academy.  As brownies are considered entry-level baking, I imagine it will work out fine.  Looking at the recipe, I noticed that it would be too sweet for my guinea pigs.  I tweaked the measurement and the ingredients and came out with this delectable walnut fudge brownies which passed my guinea pigs sweet tooth. Walnut Fudge Brownies Ingredients: 200g melted unsalted butter 190g brown sugar 190g white sugar 70g Hershey's dark cocoa powder 30g Hershey's cocoa powder 4 medium size eggs 130g all purpose flour 3g baking powder 200g walnuts Maldon sea salt flakes (optional)

The humble Pandesal is a staple Filipino breakfast or snack bread roll.  It is one of the most sought after bread in our household here in the US.  It is best eaten fresh from the oven and can be dipped in coffee or hot cocoa.  To enhance flavor, some people spread butter or margarine while others add adobo, tuna, cheese, sardines, pesto inside.  Pandesal has evolved to several variants, most notorious is the malunggay pandesal, touted as one of the healthy variants.  The pandesal recipe I will share with you today is the basic one.  Variants of pandesal will be shared below. Pandesal (Filipino Bread Rolls) Ingredients: 375g bread flour 68g  sugar 7g  salt 23g  shortening 214g  warm water 6g  instant dry yeast 1.5g  bread improver Yields:   22-25 pandesal

With lots of downtime during my recent visit to the US, I decided to attend a baking class near my area.  While searching online, artisan + no knead got me hooked at this class at Baking Arts in San Mateo.  Sure enough, no kneading is necessary but only long proofing time before you can get eat a piece of this bread. Artisan Style "No Knead" Bread Ingredients: 3 cups (400g) unbleached bread flour 1-1/2 tsp salt or 1 tbsp kosher salt 1/2 tsp instant or active dry yeast 1-1/4 cup (300g) cool tap water Corn meal for dusting (optional) Yields:  1 large 10 inch round loaf Shelf life:  2 days in room temperature Instructions: 1.  Mix flour, salt and yeast in a medium bowl.  Add water to bowl, mixing until you have a wet sticky dough, about 1 minute.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside at cool room temperature for 12-18 hours.

Fresh from the new addition to The Hutong's Baking Made Easy class is a pie making class.  I never like pies but I'm intrigued with the process.  Moreover, the class promised to create two types of pie: savory and sweet. For the savory pie, we made Mrs. Hering's Famous Chicken Pot Pie.  For the sweet pie, we made the classic Apple Pie.  I didn't know making pies was easy and fun.  I'm planning to recreate the apple pie in the near future because it was that good.  Moreover, even if it's not freshly baked when eaten, it's still so good. Classic Apple Pie Ingredients: (one large pie) Pie Crust 1 cup flour 2 tbsp sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt 150g cold butter 3 tablespoons ice cold water Apple Filling 4 apples (peeled) 170 gm sugar 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 tablespoon lemon juice

After attending my cookie class and saw how easy it was to make cookies, I searched for recipes online to experiment on.  Initially, I was planning on recreating my cousin's white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies but ended up with a chocolate chip cookie due to the cost of macadamia nuts. I have baked this cookie several times with different results each time.  The only thing that is consistent is the soft and chewy texture in the middle and the slightly crunchy texture in the edges.  It's one of the most requested items by my friends during parties. Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie Ingredients:  (yield 24 medium-sized cookies) 2/3 cup butter (151g) 1/2 cup white sugar 1/2 cup packed brown sugar 1 egg 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1-2/3 cup all purposed flour 1/4 tsp salt 1 tsp baking soda 6 ounces chocolate chip (I just pour whatever amount I want)

My dad owns a farm in Northern Cebu.  On one of our conversations, he mentioned that he was giving away some of his fruit produce for free so that it won't rot on the farm.  This made me think that maybe he could preserve and sell them in the local market.  I was also thinking that maybe I can study how and perhaps add this to my line of cookies that I plan to market in the future.  When The Hutong opened a Strawberry Specials class, I didn't hesitate to join. Traditional Homemade Strawberry Jam Ingredients: (yields 4-6 cups of jam) 2kg  strawberries, rinsed, hulled and cut into i-inch pieces (almost ripe strawberries) 5 cups granulated sugar 1/2 cup lemon juice

If you have a bunch of dried shiitake mushrooms in your pantry and wonder what to use it for, try this chicken soup that is perfect for cold, winter weather or even if you're just sick at bed with a cold and flu.  The recipe is based from suggestions of Chinese friends.  Here's to chronicling my two attempts of fixing a simple Chicken and Mushroom Soup from scratch. Chicken and Mushroom Soup Ingredients: 200g chicken breast, cubed in 1.5cm several thin slices of ginger several slices of green onion (white stalk portion only) dried shiitake mushroom, sliced in quarters 1 tsp light soy sauce salt pepper

One of the most loved dishes by foreigners is the Sichuan Spicy Chicken or La Zi Ji.  A typical dish would have either chicken cubes with bones or boneless.  The difference between the two is the flavor as the one with bones will taste much better than pure chicken meat.  However, even though it's flavorful, it's more difficult to appreciate if you have to remove the bones once in awhile while eating it. Every time I travel to a new place, I plan to add learning how to cook their dishes in my agenda.  So, in Beijing, I learned how to cook this dish from Hutong Cuisine.  It was quite a learning experience for a non-chef like me.  The teaching method was perfect for newbies and in the end, I can't believe that I was able to prepare such dish by myself. Sichuan Spicy Chicken "Laziji" Ingredients: 150g Chicken Breast fillet 1 clove garlic Ginger, same amount as garlic 1 strand of Spring Onion (white portion only) A handful of dry chillies 2...