Kozui Revisited: Healthy Lunch and Holiday Color

Kozui, Anthony So’s really fascinating teashop along Tomas Morato, is one of those places I keep coming back to because the drinks are just plain amazing and the food is nothing to sneeze at because it’s all good and freshly prepared. If you’re a major green tea junkie like yours truly, this is definitely the place for you.

I recently headed over to the shop to get a bag of matcha for a new biscotti flavor I’m currently developing. (Yes, it’s going to be a matcha to kurogoma [green tea and black sesame] cookie with a hint of almond.) Since it was lunch time, I decided to stay in and grab an iced roasted green tea latte with a touch of caramel syrup as shown at the top of this post, a plate of the shop’s really good takoyaki (they still don’t skimp on the octopus and the katsuoboshi – always a good thing for me), and this magnificent veggie-filled roll above.

This is Kozui’s roasted pumpkin wrap; quite a filling thing for both vegetarians and omnivores alike. Sweet roasted pumpkin is diced and mixed with an appealing blend of cumin and fresh basil to add a somewhat Mediterranean twist. Lettuce, creamy cubes of marinated feta cheese, and a generous sprinkling of walnuts finish this off. While this particular wrap is virtuously light, it’s also quite satisfying without making you feel sleepy or stuffed; perfect for a weekday lunch!

Oh, and may I add that Kozui is also one of the cutest restaurants in the Quezon City area and, like everyone else, they’ve decorated for the Holidays. Get a load of their matcha-colored Christmas tree ~ totemo kawaii!

Kanin Club: An Anniversary Meal for My Parents

My parents celebrated their 34th wedding anniversary on Monday. In years past, they would take us kids out to dinner to celebrate. Last year, they celebrated their anniversary with quite a crowd as the date fell on a Sunday and we hosted a housewarming party for friends and family after nearly a year of renovations on our home.

This year, I decided to return the favor and treat them to lunch over at a restaurant we’ve been dying to try for months now: the much talked about Kanin Club.

Kanin Club gets its name from the word kanin or “cooked rice” in Tagalog and it’s quite appropriate as the restaurant is steadily gaining popularity for a variety of rice-based dishes and incredible viands that knock down a lot of rice. It has gained notoriety for its crispy dinuguan (traditional pork blood stew with chunks of crunchy deep-fried pork belly) and its crispy binagoongan (a cholesterol-laden twist on binagoongang baboy – pork cooked with shrimp paste – where, again, deep-fried pork belly replaces standard-issue stewed pork).

However, since we were all a bit more health-conscious than we were years ago, we decided not to have such decadent items on our table for the day and stuck to seafood and veg dishes that were, nevertheless, equally amazing.

The tinapa rice above is one such dish. Bits of smoked fish (tinapa) are sauteed with chives and minced garlic and mixed into white rice. Not too salty with a smoky appeal, this was definitely a great thing to go with…

…the Binukadkad na Tilapia. A whole tilapia is butterflied, turned inside-out, dredged in flour and deep fried till so crisp even the fins and some of the bones are rendered edible. This came to the table with a soy-and-chili dip, but dipping the buttery flesh in that would just be gilding the lily as the fish is so flavorful on its own.

The Thai green mango salad brought a sweet-tart zing to the meal. The shredded unripe mango was crisp-tender to the bite and the tartness was beautifully complemented by the sharpness of fresh cilantro, salty peanuts, toasty scorched coconut, and a tangy-sweet patis [fish sauce]-based dressing.

There was also a dish of button mushrooms cooked ala pobre (sauteed with garlic in butter) which came with three dips. Not exactly something to write home about, but it was quite good.

Since my dad’s a major salmon fan, ordering the Sinigang na Salmon sa Miso was a must. The broth isn’t clear or translucent like that of most versions of this dish as it was made a vivid orange-scarlet by the addition of ripe tomatoes. The flavor is also different as you can actually taste the richness of the miso paste used; I have a strong suspicion that they used Japanese red miso as opposed to the paler product used by other restaurants. There was a generous amount of gorgeously fatty rich salmon belly in the soup…so good!

And, as if we hadn’t had enough sinigang for one day, we also ordered their famed Sinigang na Sinangag: rice cooked in tart sinigang broth and served with mashed tomatoes, two generous slices of stewed pork belly, and vegetables cooked tempura-style. This was, to be very frank about it, amazing: the broth gave the rice a lovely, sticky-chewy texture and a delightful tart-savory flavor. The vegetables – okra and kang kong (swamp cabbage) – were crisp and moreish; the pork belly was meltingly tender.

My parents and brother loved the meal so much that we’ve added Kanin Club to the list of restaurants we’ll be going to again and again.

Holiday Baking: Black [Forest] Bun

It's chocolate, not fruitcake.

It’s a rare person who will tell you that they actually look forward to having fruitcake whenever the Yuletide Season comes looming near.  Well, at least in this part of the world.  I read somewhere that the British are mad for fruitcake, plum pudding, and black bun which is a cross between the two whenever the Holidays roll around.  But that’s them and the rest of us strive for things that are a little less boozy but are nevertheless festive.

This is the reason why I decided to play around with things in the kitchen earlier today.  I meant to make a plain pane al cioccolato for an afternoon snack, then remembered that I recently bought a pack of flaked almonds, a bottle of almond extract, and a bag of cherry-flavored dried cranberries.  I figured I’d give an old standby a more festive twist, so I added a teaspoon of almond extract to the liquid ingredients and tossed in some almonds for a toasty crunch and some berries for a slightly tart contrast to the rich sweetness of the chocolate.

I am pleased to say that the end result beats conventional Black Forest cakes hollow.

Studded throughout with chocolate chips, berries, and nuts - YUM!

Black Forest Bun

• 350 grams all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 tablespoons granulated white sugar
• 1 sachet fast-acting yeast
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 150mL water
• 1 teaspoon almond extract or Amaretto liqueur
• 1/4 cup flaked almonds
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup cherry-flavored dried cranberries or dried cherries
• melted butter for brushing

In a large mixing bowl, combine cocoa powder, flour, yeast, almonds, salt, sugar, and 1/4 cup of the chocolate chips; set aside.  Place the water, oil, and almond extract in a heatproof bowl and microwave at HIGH for a minute and thirty seconds.  Pour the heated liquids into the dry ingredients and mix until a shaggy mess of dough is formed.  Flour your hands well (the dough will be very sticky) and knead the dough for about twelve minutes.  Form into a ball and cover with a clean dishcloth.  Place in a warm, draft-free area and allow to rise for an hour.

After an hour, punch down the dough and knead in the remaining chocolate chips and the dried cranberries.  Grease and 8-inch round cake tin and press the dough evenly in it.  Cover with a dishcloth and leave to prove for about fifteen to twenty minutes.  Preheat your oven to 450 degrees / Gas Mark 7.

Bake the proven dough for ten minutes, then lower the heat to 350 degrees / Gas Mark 5.  Bake an additional 25 minutes.

Remove the loaf from the oven and allow to cool for about five minutes in the pan.  Brush the top of the loaf with the melted butter and remove from the pan; cool completely before slicing.

Makes 1 loaf.

A Syrup-drenched Apple Cake

Think cake; think syrup-sodden, nut-studded, caramel apple-d cake. This was what I was thinking a while back when there was a glut of apples in the family fridge and everyone was getting sick of munching on them fresh, dipping slices in honey, and dicing them for salads.

I thought about turning them into caramel apples, but remembered that chewy toffee isn’t exactly the healthiest thing to coat apples in. :p

I thought about baking a batch of apple-spice muffins, but decided against it because I’d just finished baking cupcakes some time earlier. But that did give an idea as I found myself flipping through the pages of Titania Hardie’s Witch in the Kitchen from whence I got the recipe. She had a recipe for a gingered pear upside-down cake that I found most intriguing and, since I had apples and not pears, I decided to do a bit of improv and worked with what I had.

The syrupy ginger-apple upside-down pudding shown above is the end result of that bit of improvisation. It consists of a spicy, buttery cake that’s perfect for soaking up the butter-brown sugar caramel sauce that glazes it. Once baked, the crisp apples for the topping become soft – but not mushy – and moreish.

Next time I bake this, I’ll use pecans or walnuts instead of the cashews. Still, this was a most satisfactory baking experiment.

Holiday Baking: A Swedish Treat with an Asian Accent

To me, nothing says “The Holidays are coming” more overtly than the smell of good things baking in one’s kitchen. Long-time readers of this blog know that I always try new recipes whenever Christmas starts peeking ’round the corner and I’ve done it again this year.

I was inspired by A Sweet Tradition, an article written by Rebecca Fisher in this month’s issue of Saveur magazine, where the author went into full, giddy, glowing detail about Christmases in her husband’s Swedish home. She wrote about pepparkakor (spicy-rich gingerbread cutouts) and polkagriskola (caramel fudge topped with peppermint candy), of the storied yeast buns served during the feast of St. Lucia, the traditional Swedish precursor to the Holidays, on December 13th. It’s the sort of article that wraps the reader in a warm homey glow and actually sways you to hie off to your kitchen and get baking.

I was particularly taken by the idea of Lussekatter – literally “Lucy Buns” – served for the feast of St. Lucia. These gorgeously soft and fluffy buns are traditionally flavored with saffron and raisins and are served with coffee. Since I didn’t have saffron at home and raisins don’t usually go down so well with the folks and friends, I decided to tweak this recipe a little by adding cardamom and lemon zest plus some sesame seeds to give it a bit of an Asian accent. They came out of the oven absolutely fragrant and golden, by the way; like the toffee bars from a few years back, this recipe’s a keeper.

(Trust me: your house will smell so heavenly after baking these! )

Lussekatter Asiatisk (Asian-inspired Lucy Buns)

• 500 grams all-purpose flour
• 50 grams granulated white sugar
• 15omL milk
• 1/2 cup salted butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 sachet fast-acting yeast
• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest or lemon flavoring
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom

In a large mixing bowl, mix the flour with the sugar, yeast, sesame seeds, and cardamom. Make a well in the center and set aside.

Put the milk and butter in a heatproof bowl and heat in a microwave for about a minute and thirty seconds on HIGH. Whisk in the lemon zest or flavoring and the eggs. Beat until well-combined and pour into the dry ingredients. Mix into a shaggy mess of a dough and knead till smooth for about twelve minutes. Cover with a clean dishcloth and allow to rise in a warm, draft-free area for an hour.

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees / Gas mark 4. Line a cookie sheet with greaseproof paper or a Silpat liner.

Punch the risen dough down and divide into 24 pieces. Roll each piece into a thinnish rope and coil the ends in opposite directions to make S-coils or coil them towards the center to make hearts. Place on the prepared cookie sheet and cover with the dishcloth. Leave to prove for about 10 – 15 minutes.

Brush the tops of the rolls with milk or egg-wash and bake for about 22 – 25 minutes. Makes 2 dozen.