After the richness of Christmas, we tend to start the new year with good intentions. One of our usual goals is to lose that extra belly from good food and lots of it from the weeks of Christmas office parties, house parties, Christmas lunch, and up to the New Year celebration.
For a healthy yummy breakfast on the go, why not try a Berry Smoothie
Ingredients
125g blackberries
125g blueberries
125g raspberries
300g Natural wholemilk bio live yogurt
15ml wheatgerm
Reserve a few of the berries for decoration then mix all the leftover berries together and push them to a juicer.
In a separate bowl, mix the yogurt with the wheatgerm.
Divide the berry juice between to glasses.
Top up with the yogurt mix.
And then gently swirl the mixture and decorate with berries to make a really appetising look.
Christmas in the Philippines is wonderful. The country celebrates it with so much gusto, whether in food, decoration or in customs and traditions. As a pre-dominantly Catholic country, customs and traditions have gone on being passed from generation to generation. I am now living in London but I took with me the tradition of Noche Buena and Media Noche which my English family and friends enjoy and appreciate.
Anyway Christmas in the Philippines reminds me of a staple of Puto Bungbong and salabat, a mild sweetened ginger tea.
Puto Bongbong Photo by PH Morton
Puto bungbong is delicious eaten with generous spread of margarine and with lots of freshly and finely grated coconut and vanilla sugar. This is served from a banana leaf.
Midnight masses also known as Misa de Gallo or Simbang gabi, are celebrated in the Philippines commencing the night of 16 December and culminating on the night of 24th December. After attending the mass, my family would stop at one of those portable carts cooking and selling the puto bungbong and salabat tea nearby a church. It was such a treat eating and drinking something delicious and hot on a cool night. It does get cold in December in Manila at night.
I miss puto bungbong and would have love to recreate or cook it myself here in London but I don’t know where to get the paraphernalia of bamboo tubes and special steamer. If anyone can point me to the right direction where to get them, it would be very much appreciated, or if anyone has any advice on cooking puto bungbong using another utensil, I would be most grateful also.
Anyway to those who are lucky enough to have the proper or suitable cooking implements here is the recipe. Thanks.
Photo from www.dubaichronicle.com
This recipe if from www.pinoyrecipe.com
Puto Bumbong Ingredients:
Ingredients:
1 cup glutinous rice
2 tsp purple food color (ube)
2 cups water
panutsa (sugar cane sweet) or mascuvado (raw sugar)
Utensils:
knife
muslin cloth
sifter or strainer
bamboo tube (bumbong)
steamer for making puto
Puto Bumbong Cooking Instructions:
Soak glutinous rice in water overnight.
Grind the soaked rice. (see bibingka how)
Mix food color while the glutinous rice is being ground.
Wrap the ground glutinous rice on a piece of muslin cloth and place it in a strainer to drain excess liquid. Another technique in draining excess liquid is by pressing a heavy object that has been placed over the muslin cloth.
Once the ground rice has slightly dried, rub it against the screen of a strainer to produce coarse grained rice flour.
The rice flour for making puto bumbong is now ready to cook. Fill each bamboo tube (bumbong) with just enough glutinous rice and put them into the steamer. See to it that the steamer contains boiling water.
Steam rice flour in the bamboo tubes for 10 minutes.
Once cooked, shake out the contents of each bamboo tube or remove the cooked glutinous rice from the bumbong with the help of a knife.
Spread butter on the puto bumbong and place a small piece of panutsa (sugar cane sweets) or 1 tbsp. of mascuvado (raw Sugar)
Add a small amount of grated coconut before serving.
usually have 2-3 types of stuffing for Christmas. A great favourite of the family is the pork and sage stuffing. It is rather a misnomer with me because I don’t actually put the stuffing inside the turkey cavities, instead I would cook them separately. I would form little balls with the stuffing and arrange them neatly into a baking tray. I would then place them on the bottom part of the oven while the turkey is cooking on the middle tray of the oven. Depending on the size of the balls of stuffing, usually a half a tennis ball size would cook for 15 – 20 minutes.
Ingredients:
20g butter
1 medium size red onion
1 finely chopped celery stalk
1 packet of sausage meat
1 peeled, cored and chopped green apple
30 sage leaves, chopped or can used 1 tbsp of dried sage
1 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1 egg beaten
Melt the butter in a frying pan.
Add the chopped onion.
Add the celery, which had been finely chopped.
Crumble the sausagemeat and then add to the pan, stirring occasionally until lightly brown.
Add the green apple and the sage.
Cook until the apple is soft.
Season to taste.
Set aside and let it cool.
Add the breadcrumbs and the lemon zest.
Add a beaten egg and mix thoroughly.
You can make 20 balls from this mixture.
Now arrange neatly into a baking tray and put in the bottom part of the oven for at least 15 minutes.
Gorgeous not just with turkey but with chicken and pork too.
Cocktail Sausages wrapped in Bacon, Cocktail sausages, Photo by PH Morton
I love cocktail sausages with my Sunday Roast. But to make them more special as trimmings to the Christmas turkey here is a lovely recipe.
24 cocktail sausages
1 big pack of honey-cured bacon or bacon rind
English Mustard
For convenience use a pack of pre-sliced Edam or any mature cheese
toothpicks
1. Take each of the sausages and lightly brush with the mustard.
2. Wrap each one with a slice of cheese which have to be cut to size (same size as sausage)
3. Finally, wrap each of the combined sausage and cheese with the bacon and secure each with a toothpick.
4. It can be fried or put in the bottom of the oven during the last 25-30 minutes of the turkey’s cooking time. Ensure to check sausages had turned golden brown and cook through.
(If the sausage with cheese wrapped in bacon is too rich for your taste, then omit the cheese and mustard from the recipe)
There is nothing more delicious with the Christmas turkey than an accompaniment of perfectly roasted crunchy potatoes. Crispy at the outside and creamy at the inside.
Crispy Crunchy Roast Potatoes
This recipe will serve six.
9 medium roasting potatoes, peeled and cut in half.
80g goose fat (or use 80ml of olive oil; I prefer the goose fat myself – just for Christmas!)
1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Centigrade or Gas Mark 6.
2. Place the peeled halved potatoes in a saucepan of salted cold water. Cover and bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes.
3. Drain the spuds and then return to the pan and give it a good shake to roughen up the edges of the parboiled potatoes.
4. Now melt the goose fat (or heat up the olive oil) in a roasting tin, add and baste the potatoes with the hot fat. Put it in the oven and baste it once or twice during the 45 – 50 minutes cooking time or until the potatoes are golden brown.
