A. Whoa, dear reader! That’s a lot of questions and although some of your queries have been featured here in our past columns (i.e. apple pie, ube cake, no-bake desserts, fruit jams and jellies), we could probably fill up a book if we had to answer all of them right now.
Let’s start with a warm and delicious apple pie recipe, which you can check out on our website. Visit us at www.wholly mollytips.com and click through to our "Library" of "Recipes."
The simplest way to prepare a vanilla mousse would be to pick up a packet of vanilla-flavored instant pudding mix and follow the manufacturer’s instructions at the back of the box. Pour the warm pudding into individual cups and chill. Simply blending together fresh mango bits from two mangoes and 1/2 cup of water can make a thick mango sauce. Squirt some juice from a couple of calamansi (or lemon or lime juice) and add a dash of sugar to suit your sweet palate. Serve the warmed mango sauce separately from your mousse (er, pudding) dessert!
Stay tuned for a more authentic (meaning made-from-scratch!) recipe for vanilla cream mousse in the future!
What’s Wrong With My Melon Shake? |
A. Unless you’ve used a still unripe (or even overripe!) melon or mixed the fruit with some acidic ingredient, the bitter taste is certainly a mystery. What did you blend in to make your melon shake? Remedying the lot may require diluting the mixture with water, milk and even more fruit, or adding a measure of sugar to mask the bitter aftertaste.
Wipe the peeled surface of an apple with a calamansi half to prevent oxidation. Good luck!
Pushing For Rellenong Pusit |
A. Before stuffing the cavities of any large-sized squid, make sure you’ve cleaned them out thoroughly, removed the stiff, clear vertebrae and pulled off the sticky, outer membrane.
Slice a large tomato and onion, and grate a small knob of ginger. Chop a few cilantro leaves and mix them together with the minced tomatoes, onions and ginger. Sprinkle some salt and pepper and add a few drops of patis (fish sauce), calamansi juice and soy sauce.
Fill the squid cavities with this vegetable stuffing using a teaspoon and seal the open end with a toothpick.
Before placing the stuffed squid on a broiler rack (or grill!), lightly drizzle some soy sauce and brush the surface with olive oil.
I hope this is the relleno recipe you had in mind for your pusit!
The Case For Finding Flour |
Q. I want to buy bread flour at the market but they don’t know what this is. They only use the terms first class, second class, and third class. I want to buy it at the market because, as we all know, times are hard and buying a kilo of flour at the market is much cheaper than at the grocery.– ELAINE Club Ocellaris Anilao, Batangas
I don’t know which grocery stores specifically carry corn flour, but you could try substituting rice or wheat flour. Corn flour is customarily used for thickening liquids or making dough for nacho chips and tortillas and can most probably be found in a food store that carries imported products (from Mexico or Latin America).
The term bread flour seems a bit peculiar because flour, the raw ingredient, is used to make an end product, which is bread. So, you may have trouble finding this specifically, but you can apparently choose among the different available classes of wheat flour.
Depending on what kind of bread you intend to bake and how much you’re willing to spend, it’s probably best to go with first class.
Thanks For The Macaroons! |
Q. I’d like you to know I always enjoy reading your column. More power to you! – JUDY ANN HUANG
Q. I’m an avid reader of your column in the Philippine Star. In fact, I have kept a lot of clippings of your columns about various matters that interest me. And now, I always browse your website.
I was given lots of desiccated coconut, but I don’t know how to use it. I was thinking of making macaroons, but I don’t have a recipe. Could you send me one? – Lucy PUTONG
A. I really enjoy reading all your mail and try to provide sensible solutions to all your queries.
Here’s a quick (I’ve done it in under 17 minutes!) recipe for yummy oatmeal macaroons that are not too sweet:
Preheat your oven at 350 F degrees. Combine 1/2 cup each of maple syrup and desiccated coconut, and 1 cup of rolled oats. Beat two egg whites until they become stiff and fold into the blended mixture. Drop teaspoonful-sized mounds onto a lightly greased cookie sheet and bake for 15 minutes.