Maja Blanca

My sister-in-law, Tina, is an amazing person. She’s the middle girl in Old Goat Honey’s family and typical of the middle child, she’s easy-going but hardworking, innovative and willing to try new things, kind-hearted, peace-loving, and makes a great friend. She’s had some trials in her life but her perseverance always pulls her through with flying colors. She loves animals and her home in Australia has turned into a mini animal sanctuary for all the animals she’s rescued. I’m forever in awe of how artistic she is. She can draw, paint, sculpt… She made a mobile for No. 1 when he was born that was absolutely adorable. I always say she’s the family McGyver. Give her a sheet of plastic and an exacto knife and she’ll have a bunch of crowns made and all the children playing King Arthur’s Court in no time. Did I mention she cooks and bakes, too? She taught me how to make Maja Blanca. This is her recipe.

Maja Blanca is a traditional Filipino dessert. It’s kindof like a coconut pudding studded with kernels of corn. It sounds strange to think of coconut and corn together, but believe me this dessert is sooo good, you’ll find yourself coming back for seconds and thirds. I think Maja Blanca is traditionally topped with latik which is basically coconut milk curds. To make latik, you bring some coconut milk to a simmer and keep simmering till the oil separates from the milk solids which eventually start to fry in the oil and and turn into little brown curds. It’s a lot of work. My shredded coconut topping is way easier.

When you shop for the canned milks for this recipe, you’ll need to buy:

• 4 cans (13.5 oz. each) coconut milk
• 1 can (12 oz.) evaporated milk

From the 4 cans of coconut milk, you’ll be able to get 5 cups for the 1st Mixture, but you won’t have enough left over to make 2 cups for the 2nd Mixture. Never fear. What you’re going to do is pour the last of the coconut milk into your 2-cup measure and then add enough of the liquid drained from the whole kernel corn to make 2 cups.

Same thing with the evaporated milk. You won’t have enough in the can to make 2 cups but it’s not worth opening a whole ‘nother can when you’re just a little bit short, so pour the evaporated milk into your measuring cup and then add enough corn liquid drained from the whole kernel corn to make the 2 cups that you’ll need for the 1st Mixture. If you run out of corn liquid, go ahead and use water. It’ll be fine.

MAJA BLANCA

1st Mixture:

• 5 cups coconut milk
• 2 cups evaporated milk
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 can (14¾ oz.) cream-style corn
• 1 can (15.25 oz.) whole kernel corn, drain and reserve the liquid

2nd Mixture:

• 2 cups coconut milk
• 2 cups cornstarch

1. Grease a rectangular pyrex glass baking dish or metal baking pan with butter or margarine.
2. Mix all the ingredients of the 1st Mixture together in a large pot.
3. In a bowl, mix together the ingredients of the 2nd Mixture using a wire whisk until smooth.
4. Bring 1st Mixture to a boil over moderate heat, stirring occasionally.
5. When boiling, pour the 2nd Mixture into the pot, scraping it all in with a rubber spatula, and continue to cook, stirring constantly until thick. The mixture will thicken really fast so this step is best done by two people. One person to stir the pot while the other person pours the 2nd Mixture into it.
6. Quickly pour maja into prepared baking pan.

Toasted Sweet Coconut Topping:

• 1 cup fresh grated coconut
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 Tbsp. butter or margarine

1. Melt butter in a frying pan.
2. Add grated coconut and sugar and toast, stirring constantly until golden brown. Watch carefully because the coconut burns fast!
3. Sprinkle toasted sweet coconut over maja blanca.

NOTE:  If you can’t get fresh grated coconut, you can substitute unsweetened dessicated coconut. If you can’t get unsweetened dessicated coconut, you can use sweetened dessicated coconut but cut the 1/2 cup sugar down to 2 tablespoons.

This is a big recipe so it’s great for potlucks and family gatherings. It makes enough to fill a 9×13 rectagular baking dish with enough left over to fill an 8-inch round pie plate. If you have a dish bigger than 9×13, use it to make one giant dessert.

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Oven Roasted Crispy Pork Belly (Lechon sa Hurno)

Filipinos eat a lot of pork. They’re really good at cooking it, too. Lechon is one of the national dishes of the Philippines. It’s basically a whole roasted pig. The pig is skewered on a bamboo pole and slow roasted over hot coals while being continuously hand-turned like a giant rotisserie till the skin turns a crisp, reddish-brown and the meat becomes juicy and tender.

Lechon Kawali is made from pork belly that’s boiled until tender, then dried overnight, and the next day, is deep fried in a kawali (Filipino wok) till the skin is puffed and crunchy. However, cooking lechon kawali can be a dangerous endeavor. The pork belly pops and can splatter hot oil (or make “talsik” as they say) quite violently and can cause some pretty serious burns if you’re not careful. Not to mention making a greasy mess. Few are the Filipino cooks who have escaped unscathed from a bout with a slab of frying pork belly.

Enter Lechon sa Hurno (Oven Roasted Pork Belly). Lechon sa Hurno is prepared similarly to Lechon Kawali except instead of being fried, the pork belly is baked in the oven. No oil splatters, no greasy mess, and no visits to the urgent care clinic. Just some tender pieces of pork topped with a delicious crunchy skin.

This recipe differs from traditional Lechon sa Hurno in that you don’t boil the pork first before roasting. My cousin, Ana, has a business in the Philippines selling crispy pork belly and she said she uses lemon grass and bay leaves for “aromatics.” Meanwhile, I’d heard of roasting pork belly with a salt crust, kind of like the way they do with prime rib or whole fish, and decided to try the salt crust method of roasting the pork belly with aromatics underneath it for flavoring. Success! The meat was so tender and tasty. And the skin was to die for! Nicely seasoned and so crisp, you could hear the crunch across the kitchen as you sliced it.

LECHON SA HURNO (OVEN ROASTED CRISPY PORK BELLY)

• 2½ – 3 lbs. boneless, skin-on, pork belly
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 stalks lemon grass, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, sliced
• 4 sprigs fresh oregano
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme
• 3 bay leaves
• ½ cup water
• 1 cup salt

1. The day before you plan to roast your pork belly, wash it in cold water and dry it very well with paper towels. Then put it on a platter, skin side up, and place the pork, uncovered, in the fridge to dry overnight.
2. The next day, take a long sheet of foil, fold it in half so you have a double thickness, and press it into your roasting pan.
   
3. Lay a bed of chopped onions, lemon grass, and garlic on the foil, then place the oregano, thyme and bay leaves on top. These are your aromatics. If you’re not sure how to work with lemon grass, you can read about it here.
   
4. Place the pork belly, skin side up, directly on top of the aromatics in the pan.
   
5. Look at your pork belly skin. If one portion of it seems to dip lower than the rest, take a piece of foil, scrunch it up, and tuck it under the lower part to raise it. You want the skin on top to be as level as possible so that it crisps evenly. (I learned that the hard way after the sides of my pork belly starting browning faster than the center portion which was lower.)
6. Pull up the foil to enclose the bottom and sides of the pork belly, pinching the corners to fit the foil around the meat. Leave the top open to expose the skin.
   
   
7. Carefully pour water against the foil along one side of the pork belly so it runs underneath the meat and mixes with the aromatics. This helps keep the aromatics from burning. If any water gets on the skin, dry it quickly with a paper towel.
8. Pour the salt on top of the skin and pat it smooth to make a salt crust.
   
   
9. Bake at 350ºF for 1½ hours. Remove from oven and raise oven temperature to 425ºF.  Pull foil open to expose the sides of the pork.
   
10. Using a pair of tongs, carefully lift off and discard salt crust.
    
11. Usually, the salt crust lifts off in one piece. If it breaks like mine did, don’t worry about it. Just throw away the broken piece and carefully remove what’s left.
    
12. After discarding the salt crust, pick up the pork belly with the tongs, hold it over your sink, and brush off any excess salt that may have spilled onto the skin.
    
13. Place a wire rack over the pan and place the pork belly on the rack.
    TIP: I learned this after I made the pork pictured below. If your pork belly has an uneven thickness like mine (see how it dips down in the middle?) take a piece of foil, crumple it up into a ball or log, and place it underneath the meat where it dips down low. This will raise that section up so that the top of the pork is all at an even level. Then when you broil it, the skin will broil evenly and you won’t have the higher spots turning dark brown while the lower spots remain too light.
    
14. Return pork to oven and bake an additional 30 minutes more.
15. Turn off oven, turn on broiler to low, and broil for about 15-20 minutes or until skin is completely puffed up and golden brown all over. Watch carefully that it doesn’t burn!
    
16. Slice into 3/4-inch strips. Then cut the strips crosswise into 1-inch pieces and serve.
    

Filipino Buko Pie (Young Coconut Pie)

My Dad’s family hails from a place called Bay, Laguna in the Philippines. Bay (pronounced “Bah-eh” by the locals) is one of the oldest towns in the province of Laguna. Legend has it that the Datu or Tribal Chief of the area had three beautiful daughters. When the Spanish came to convert the natives to Catholicism, the Datu’s three daughters were baptized and renamed Maria Basilisa, Maria Angela and Maria Elena. The first letters of Basilisa, Angela and Elena were put together to form the name “Bae” which over time changed to “Bay.” The district of Santo Domingo in Bay was actually named after my great-grandfather, Domingo Ordoveza, who was a wealthy landowner in the area.

I remember going to Bay as a little girl with my grandparents. We went every year during the town fiesta. There would be a huge party on the plantation with lots of people, tons of food, games, prizes, and fun. We stayed at the family homestead which I remember as a big, white house surrounded by lanzones trees. Lanzones is a small, yellow fruit native to the Philippines. I remember watching the boys climb the trees to pick the fruit for us to eat.

One of the things I also remember eating is Buko Pie. The province of Laguna with all its coconut trees is famous for its buko pie. Buko is the Filipino word for “young coconut.” As a coconut matures, the meat becomes thicker, firmer and whiter; but young coconut meat is thin, soft and almost opaque in color. That’s the coconut we use to make buko pie. The coconut shell is cut in half and the buko is scraped out with a shredding tool that produces thin strips or strings of the meat. It’s absolutely delicious. Where I live in North America, I can’t get fresh buko (or fresh coconuts for that matter) so I have to buy frozen buko from the Asian grocery stores. It’s not as good as fresh, of course, but it works fine when you’re craving a slice of nostalgia in pie form.

FILIPINO BUKO PIE

Crust:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. salt
• ½ cup cold butter, cut into pieces
• ¼ cup cold shortening, cut into pieces
• 5-6 tbsp. cold water
• 1 egg, for egg wash

1. Combine flour, sugar and salt in a bowl.
2. Using a pastry blender or two knives, cut in butter and shortening until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
3. Pinch off a small clump of dough and squeeze it in your hand. If it does not hold together, sprinkle the dough with 1 tablespoon of ice water and blend with a fork. Keep adding ice water, a tablespoon at a time, until mixture just holds together when squeezed in your hand.
4. Divide dough into 2 balls, one slightly bigger than the other, and flatten each ball into a disk.
5. Wrap the disks in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour or up to 2 days.

Filling:

• 3 pkgs. (about 3 cups) frozen shredded buko, thawed and drained
• ⅓ cup cornstarch
• 1 cup buko juice
• 1 cup evaporated milk
• ¾ cup sugar
• ½ tsp. vanilla

1. In a small saucepan, stir cornstarch into buko juice until completely dissolved.
2. Stir in evaporated milk, sugar, vanilla and buko.
3. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until thickened.
4. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

To Assemble Pie:

1. Preheat oven to 375ºF.
2. Sprinkle flour on work surface and roll out the larger of the two disks into a 12-inch circle. When rolling, work from the center to the outer edges, spinning the dough occasionally to get an even round shape.
3. Transfer the dough to a 9-inch pie plate, pressing into the bottom and up the sides.
4. Trim off any excess dough.
5. Place bottom crust in refrigerator while you work on second disk of dough.
6. Roll out second disk on lightly floured work surface, spinning occasionally to get an even circle large enough to cover the pie.
7. Take bottom crust from the refrigerator and pour filling into it spreading evenly.
8. Place top crust over pie.
9. Roll the edge of the top crust just underneath the edge of the bottom crust and flute the edges together all around the pie.
10. Make an egg wash by beating 1 egg and 1 tablespoon cold water together.
11. Brush egg wash all over top crust.
12. Prick holes on the top crust with a fork to allow steam to escape the pie while baking. You could also cut 6 or 8 vent holes with a sharp paring knife, or cut out decorative designs with a pie crust cutter.
13. Bake pie in oven for 35-40 minutes or until crust is golden brown.
14. Cool on a wire rack before slicing.

NOTE:  If you have a food processor, use it to make the pie crust. It makes it so much easier and quicker. Besides, the less you handle the dough, the more tender and flaky your crust will turn out. Just follow the directions as listed, but instead of using a pastry blender or a fork, pulse the ingredients together in the food processor.

Frozen buko comes in plastic bags like this:

Filipino Hamburgers

Hamburger sandwiches are not native to the Philippines. That being said, hamburger joints abound everywhere and we ate burgers all the time growing up. But when it came to making burgers at home, unlike American burgers which are usually plain meat patties simply seasoned with salt and pepper, our cook would add all kinds of stuff to our burgers and boy were they good! Give this recipe a try and you’ll see what I mean.

FILIPINO HAMBURGERS

• ½ lb. lean ground beef
• ½ lb. ground pork
• ½ small onion, finely chopped
• ½ cup bread crumbs
• ¼ cup milk
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 Tbsp. soy sauce
• 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
• ½ tsp. salt
• ¼ tsp. pepper
• 4 hamburger buns, split and toasted
• condiments:  mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard
• toppings:  cheese, lettuce leaves, tomato, onion, pickles

1. In a bowl, combine beef, pork, onion, bread crumbs, milk, egg, soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper.
2. Divide meat mixture into four balls and flatten into patties.
3. Grill or fry until burgers reach desired doneness.
4. Serve on toasted hamburger buns, with condiments and toppings on the side for people to build their own burgers.

NOTE:  If you want, you can make your burger patties with a pound of pure beef and leave out the ground pork. Our cook always used a mixture of half beef and half pork, but that was probably because beef was more expensive in the Philippines.

Leche Flan Cake

We ate Leche Flan Cake all the time when we were growing up in the Philippines. There was a canteen near my Lolo’s (grandpa’s) office that sold it for a few cents a slice. It was always such a treat to go visit my Lolo at work because he invariably would give us some money to run down to the canteen for a slice of Leche Flan Cake. Looking back, I think it was probably his way of getting rid of a bunch of noisy kids so he could work in peace for a while. LOL! Either way, I always thought the cake was the best part of visiting my Lolo at his work. Now, I make my own leche flan cake and hopefully, it’s created some fond memories for my own kids to look back on, too.

Traditional leche flan cake has a thin layer of flan on top of a thick layer of cake, but my Old Goat would always ask if I could make the flan layer thicker (like I do with Chocoflan Cake). So I finally gave in and that’s why my leche flan cake doesn’t look anything like traditional Filipino leche flan cakes. I have to admit he was right though. I do like it better with a thicker layer of flan. The fam sure does, too. And so will you!

FILIPINO LECHE FLAN CAKE

For the Caramel Sauce:

• 2 cups white sugar

1. Pour sugar into 9×13-inch metal baking pan and set on stove over low heat.
2. Cook sugar until it melts and begins to turn caramel colored.
3. Tilt pan so caramel coats the bottom evenly. Use oven mitts! The pan will be hot!
4. Set aside to cool. The caramel will harden and could crack as it cools. Don’t worry. This is normal.

For the Leche Flan:

• 2 whole eggs
• 4 egg yolks (save the whites for another use)
• 2 cans evaporated milk
• 1 can condensed milk
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla

1. In a bowl whisk together the whole eggs, egg yolks, evaporated milk, condensed milk, sugar, and vanilla.
2. Pour the mixture over the cooled caramel in the baking pan.

For the Cake:

• 1½ cups cake flour
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 tbsp. baking powder
• ½ tsp. salt
• ½ cup whole milk (or buttermilk)
• ¾ cup oil
• 4 egg yolks (save the whites to make meringue)
• 1 tsp. vanilla

1. Sift together cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl.
2. Make a well in the center.
3. In a small bowl, whisk the milk, oil, egg yolks, and vanilla.
4. Pour the milk mixture into the well of dry ingredients and whisk until combined.
5. Set batter aside and make meringue.

For the Meringue:

• 4 egg whites
• ½ tsp. cream of tartar
• ½ cup sugar

1. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar on high until frothy.
2. Decrease speed to medium and gradually add the sugar.
3. Continue beating on medium until eggs whites are glossy and form stiff peaks.
4. Take a third of the meringue and carefully fold it into the cake batter to lighten it.
5. Fold the rest of the meringue into the cake batter until no more white streaks remain.
6. Pour batter slowly over the leche flan mixture in baking pan.

To Bake:

1. Place baño maria (water bath) inside oven. You can use a large roasting pan for this.
2. Fill with enough water to come at least halfway up sides of baking pan.
3. Turn oven on and preheat to 325ºF.
4. When oven is ready, carefully lower baking pan with batter into hot water in baño maria.
5. Close oven door and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until cake springs back when touched lightly in center.
6. Remove cake from oven and allow to cool completely; then chill in refrigerator overnight.
7. Run a knife along the sides of the cake to loosen it from the pan.
8. Turn cake out onto serving platter with a rim to catch any caramel sauce that might drip.

Filipino Pork Barbecue

It’s No. 1’s birthday tomorrow. To celebrate, we’re having a Filipino dinner. I’m making Filipino pork barbecue among other things. Pork barbecue is a favorite party food in the Philippines and is often the first thing to disappear from the table. It’s also a popular street food and you can always find barbecued pork, chicken or innards being sold on city street corners. Filipinos prefer their barbecue a little on the sweet side and it is often served with a spicy vinegar dipping sauce made by stirring finely chopped chili peppers, onions, garlic, salt and pepper into a bottle of white vinegar.

I learned to make the original recipe for pork barbecue from Mrs. Carrion, my 7th grade cooking teacher at the Assumption Convent where I went to school. I can still hear her trying to impress upon a bunch of young girls the importance of cleaning up as you work. Since then I’ve modified her original recipe, making changes and additions to suit my own taste. And yes, I do clean up as I work. That part of making this hasn’t changed.

FILIPINO PORK BARBECUE

• 3 lbs. boneless pork butt or shoulder, cut into 1/2-inch thick chunks
• 1 cup soy sauce
• 1 cup Mafran or Jufran banana ketchup
• 1/2 cup 7-Up
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup worcestershire sauce
• juice of 1/2 of a lemon
• 1 whole head garlic, peeled and crushed
• 1 tsp. hot sauce (optional)

1. Mix all the marinade ingredients together in a large bowl.
2. Marinate the pork overnight.
3. While the pork marinates, soak bamboo skewers in water overnight. This helps to keep them from burning on the grill.
4. Skewer the marinated pork onto the soaked bamboo sticks.
5. In a small bowl make a mixture of 2 parts Mafran ketchup to 1 part of the marinade mixture for brushing over the pork while grilling (i.e. 1 cup Mafran + 1/2 cup marinade).
6. Grill pork until done, brushing with Mafran mixture while grilling.

NOTE:  Nowadays, you can purchase Mother’s Best or Mama Sita’s Barbecue Marinade in Filipino or Asian grocery stores. I think both brands are very good and make a quick and easy marinade when you don’t have time to gather and measure out all the ingredients for the traditional recipe. You’ll have to try both brands yourself to decide if you like one better than the other. They both taste delicious to me so I usually just pick up whichever one is on sale at the time I’m at the store.

QUICK AND EASY MARINADE:

• 2 cups Mama Sita’s or Mother’s Best barbecue marinade
• 1 cup 7-Up
• 1 head garlic, peeled and crushed

Follow the steps above, including making the 2:1 Mafran/marinade mixture to brush over the pork while grilling.