How To Make Buchi/Sesame Seed Balls

Buchi/Sesame Seed Balls

I enjoyed making these Sesame Seed Balls or better known in the Philippines as Buchi at home because it was fun, I had all the ingredients available in my kitchen, filling and shaping them into perfect balls made it more fun. 

I enjoyed the frying part also because I had to turn each ball around with wooden chopsticks to make them in perfect round shapes when they are done. I really enjoyed it. 

These delicious snacks are found in many Chinese restaurants like the popular Chowking who usually serve them as dessert during parties or even in the popular packaged menus like their Lauriat plate. Of course there are other choices of after meal sweets such as Almond Jelly, Halo-halo and Fresh Fruits in Season but the Sesame Seed Balls are the most popular choices.  

Try them as I have done following a tested recipe here and enjoy it too, as I did. 

Sweet Red Bean Paste Inside A Buchi/Sesame Seed Ball

Ingredients:

2 cups glutinous rice powder, 200 grams

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup sweet potato flour + 1/2 cup boiling water

1/2 cup white sugar + 1/2 cup boiling water

1 Tbsp vegetable oil

1/2 cup white sesame seeds

Cooking oil for frying

Procedure:

• Dissolve sugar in boiling water. 
• Mix sweet potato flour in boiling water until pasty. 
• Put the glutinous rice powder in a mixing bowl. 
• Add the baking powder and whisk to mix. 
• To the bowl add the dissolved sugar syrup and mix to form a dough. 
• Add to the dough the sweet potato flour mixture and mix to form a soft dough. 
• Start to knead the dough until it becomes smooth and pliable. 
• Divide the dough into equal 12 portions and form into balls. 
• Fill each ball with the sweet red bean paste and form it into a smooth ball. 
• Roll each ball into a bowl of white sesame seeds until it is covered evenly.
• Maintain the round shapes of every ball you make for presentation.
• Heat enough oil in a frying pan and start frying the sesame balls. Lower the flame when the oil starts boiling. 
• Using a wooden chopstick try turning each sesame seed ball while frying it to golden brown for 10 to 15 minutes. 
• When golden remove the balls from the hot oil and transfer them to a paper towel lined plates to absorb excess oil. 
• Finish frying the second batch and do the same as the first batch.  
• Serve. 

Share and Enjoy!

Jumbo Buchi/Sesame Seed Balls

Red Bean Paste

1 cup red beans, soaked in water overnight

1/2 cup white sugar

1 Tbsp butter

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Procedure:

• Boil the soaked red beans in enough water to cover for a minute then throw the water and replace with a new amount and bring to boil until soft for 45 minutes  up to 1 hour. Drain. 
• Mash the soft beans and pass through a sieve to remove the skins. Discard the skins.
• Mix the beans puree with sugar, add the butter and vanilla. 
• Cook the mixture in a non stick pan mixing all the time until the mixture is thick and pasty and leaving the sides of the pan. 
• Cool and divide into 12 portions and form into 1 inch balls. 
• Use these sweet red bean paste to fill the sesame seed balls. 

A Plate Of Jumbo Buchi/Sesame Seed Balls

How To Make Puto Pao

Puto Pao

Puto is a traditional rice cake in the Philippines. It is usually made from rice, sugar and coconut milk, flavored with anise or pandan. The rice is soaked in water to soften it then ground to make it smooth. Water or coconut milk is added and sweetened with sugar. A leavening agent is also added like baking powder. 

When ready, the batter is poured to a puto mold and steamed for a certain time until the puto is cooked. Oftentimes the puto is served with freshly grated coconut or buttered and sometimes eaten as is. 

In the Philippines puto is a good snack and served during parties to pair with noodle dishes and other snack favorites like dinuguan, noodle soups or even rice porridge. 

Puto can be flavored according to your taste. Cheese is the favorite topping and butter is also brushed on top after steaming. 

On special occassions puto is colored to give it an eye appeal to match flavors like green for pandan, yellow for cheese, plain white for coconut, violet for ube flavor and so on. My favorite flavor is asado, a meat dish used to fill Siopao or Chinese steamed buns. 

Here is how I make my Puto Pao. It is puto filled with Asado Meat and topped with salted egg slice. The texture of the dough is similar to siopao and the taste is as good as the soft siopao I use to make at home. 

Ingredients:

2 cups All Purpose Flour

2 Tablespoons Powder milk

1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon Baking Powder

1 1/2 cups hot water

3/4 cup white sugar

2 Tablespoons Soft Butter

For the Topping:

2 salted eggs, sliced

Procedure:

Whisk dry ingredients flour, powder milk and baking powder together in a bowl. Sift them to remove lumps. 

Combine hot water, sugar and butter in a glass pyrex bowl and mix to dissolve sugar and melt the butter. When liquid is lukewarm add 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast into the sugar mixture. 

Add the liquid mixture to the sifted dry ingredients to make a batter without lumps. Rest the batter for 30 minutes at least to 1 hour. 

Fill oiled puto molds 1/4 full of the batter mixture then add a teaspoonful of Asado filling into it then cover the filling 3/4 full of the mold. 

Steam for 10 minutes, top risen puto with salted egg slices then steam again for another 5 minutes. Adjust time according to the size of your mold. 

Serve, share and enjoy! 

Puto Pao Reheated

Puto Pao Serving

How To Make Homemade Kalamay Hati

Homemade Kalamay Hati

Today I made Kalamay Antipolo or Kalamay Hati or Kalamay Perya. Remember those thin kakanin in banana leaves we see on the streets during Town Fiestas? They say those are from Antipolo, others say they are from Bohol or some from Iloilo accordingly. 

Wherever they are from, I like them very much. In Baguio, they sell them inside small ball containers wherein just a pea size of the sticky snack can be found inside. Later on I found some of these kalamay inside coconut shells wherein you get more delicious concoction. 

Whatever it is called, I like it specially when it has more latik. The texture is almost similar to soft tikoy, a sticky Chinese sweet rice cake. 

Here is a recipe I followed when I cooked this Kalamay Hati which is super better than those bought in the streets sold by ambulant vendors during town fiestas. We need only a few ingredients like sweet rice powder also known as glutinous rice powder, muscovado sugar, coconut cream and milk plus a lot of patience.

Ingredients:

2 cups malagkit rice powder

2 cups muscovado sugar (packed), use all 1/2 kilo in the bag

4 cups gata from 2-3 coconuts,  (2 cups cream, 1st extraction) + 2 cups diluted with water from the 2nd extraction

Procedure:

Combine all malagkit rice powder in a big kawa with 4 cups combined coconut milk and stir to dissolve. 

Cook this in low heat, mixing and scraping the bottom of the kawa until the mixture turns pasty and makunat.

Add all the muscovado sugar to the pasty mixture, stir to dissolve the sugar and continue to cook on low heat, stirring and scraping the bottoms and sides non-stop. 

Continue cooking and scraping the bottom on low heat, the color will turn dark and becoming more makunat. 

Continue cooking for a total of 45 minutes doing the same stirring and scraping until you cannot stir it anymore. 

Transfer the cooked kalamay in an oiled platter ( you can line it w/ oiled banana leaf ) and spread it thin just like those we buy in the peryas (fiesta fairs).

Plain Kalamay Hati 

Top with latik. I'm sure you know how to make latik. If not, just cook a cup of coconut cream until reduced to solids and continue to cook it until it browns but not burnt in its own oil. You have to do it stirring from start to end. Do this before you cook the kalamay so you have oil to use.

"Latik"

 Try it, it's yummy. 

Hope you like it.

Kalamay Hati With "Latik"

LECHE FLAN

This custard sweet is popular among Filipinos who always look forward to a sweet ending for every meal or as a snack or as an ingredient to a more favorite halo-halo ( a Filipino concoction of assorted sweets serve with shaved ice and milk).  If we cannot make this on ordinary days, we make sure we have it during occassions like Christmas, the season of feasting.  So this time I made leche flan as I like it.


Recipe:

          10 large eggyolks
          1 tin big Milkmaid sweetened condensed milk
          1 tin tall Alpine evaporated
          1 teaspoon SuperCook pure vanilla extract
          1/2 cup white sugar for the caramel
  
Procedure:

          Mix eggyolks, condensed milk, evaporated milk and vanilla extract and strain.  Set aside.
          Caramelize all the white sugar. Be very careful, watch that the caramel won't burn. I do it
          without adding water and it is easier if you do it carefully.
          Line leche flan mold with caramelized sugar. I used only one mold so I get a thick flan with
          lots of caramel. Cool.
          Pour the egg mixture. Cover with cling wrap, steam for 40 minutes to one hour. Always
          check near the end of cooking time for firmness. Don't let it overcook, it will rise and
          bubble.
          Cool it then refrigerate before serving.

            

SIOPAO

Source of Recipe: Playing with My Food, http://pwmf.blogspot.com/

Siopao Dough:     

    

     Starter Dough:

                       175grams cake flour

                       1/2tsp  yeast

                       1/2tsp  sugar

                       160grams water

      Dissolve sugar and yeast in water, then add the cake flour. Mix everything together and prove until

      double or overnight.

       Main Dough:                                                             

                       200grams starter dough

                       50 grams sugar

                       2tsp double acting baking powder

                       3tsp water

                       100grams all purpose flour

                       20 grams shortening

     Mix sugar with starter dough until sugar dissolves. Add baking powder, water and shortening.

     Mix until smooth. Finally add flour and knead for a few minutes. Let dough rest for 10 minutes.

     Divide the dough into 8 portions then wrap filling. Rest for 30 minutes then steam for 8 to 10

     minutes.

     Note:  Mix the leftover starter dough (135 grams) with 1/2tsp. sugar, 120grams cake flour,

                and 80 grams water then prove overnight. This is more starter dough to start a recipe again.

                For the filling I used sauteed Purefoods corned beef, 135gram can is enough to fill the

                8 portions of siopao dough. In 1 T. olive oil, saute 1T minced garlic, 2 sliced small onion,

                and 1/4t ground pepper.  Add the corned beef and cook the mixture until almost dry.Cool

                then divide the filling into 8 portions and use to fill the 8 siopao doughs.

                

BIKO

                                                             

I made this Biko when I was in Ireland with my niece because it is one of her favorite Filipino snacks. She also wanted to share it with some of her friends who like her were also missing this sweet rice delicacy.

Ingredients:                                                          :

     1/2 kilo malagkit rice or glutinuous rice                       
      500ml  thick coconut milk
            2T liquid glucose
      300grams white sugar

Procedure:

     Steam the glutinuous rice as you would cook ordinary rice but lessen the water.
     Combine sugar, glucose and coconut milk in a sauce pan,  put on low fire, stir until sugar is dissolved.
     Strain the mixture and put back on low fire, add the steamed glutinuous rice, stir until very
     sticky and  leaving the sides of the pan.  Pour into lightly greased rectangle pyrex dish.                        
      Flatten  with  back of the spoon with some coconut oil.



Topping:

      1 cup coconut cream
      1 cup muscovado sugar

     Boil sugar and coconut cream together while stirring until sugar is dissolved. Continue
     cooking until very thick.  Pour over the rice mixture and spread evenly on top. Bake in a

     hot oven until the top is bubbly. Remove from the oven and cool before slicing.
                             
   
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DRIED PORK TAPA

     

   

Lily's Wai Sek Hong,  wow to all your recipes. Please allow me to use as reference some of your recipes as I find them all nice and worth keeping. Thank you so much for sharing your love for cooking, very useful to me. I wish to share to my relatives and friends the very nice foods you have featured in your blog.

The above photos show my interpretation of Lily's Long Yoke or for me Dried Pork. You can see the recipe at http://lilyng2000.blogspot.com/

Ingredients:

1 kilo ground pork, 20 percent fat

Marinade:

1 1/2T patis
1 1/2T light soysauce
200 grams sugar
1/8t 5-spice powder
1/2t cinnamon powder
1/2t licorice powder
1/2t white pepper
1t msg, optional
1T oil
2T rose wine or any wine
some drops of red food color

Procedure:

1, Mix ground pork in the seasonings and marinate at least 4 hours or overnite.
2. Turn oven to 175 degrees Farenheit.
3. Oil the underside of 4 baking sheets. Divide the meat mixture into 4 portions. Spread one portion of meat mixture as thin aspossible to cover the oiled sheets.
4. Bake 10 minutes or until firm.
5. Remove from oven and cut meat with scissors into pieces.
6. Repeat with the rest of the meat mixture.
7. Meat is now ready for grilling or panfrying.


Note: This dried pork is almost similar to Chinese dried tapa, the ones we buy in Chinese delis.