Maja Blanca

We got invited to an early Christmas party and I thought, since most of the guests anyway are Filipinos,might as well bring something Filipino for dessert.

Maja blanca brings back memories of my school days, I have always loved buying this yummy food at the school canteen each time the teacher calls for "recess". Although I find that my good old Maja favorite before is not as creamy, this recipe promises to be rich with "gata" or coco milk.

To give it a "pica-pica" party appeal, i used our decorative ice cube trays to mould, making it bite-size,ready to eat.

This no-bake recipe is easy to prepare, even children can do this at home (with supervision).


Ingredients:

1 cup corn flour
500 ml of coco milk (available in tetra pack from supermarkets)
150 ml of sweetened condensed milk (you can add more if you like it sweeter)
1 cup water
1 can (Del Monte) cream-style corn
butter to grease

1. In a large pan, dissolve 1 cup corn flour in 1 cup of water until homogeneous. Add the coconut milk followed by the cream-style corn.
2. Set to medium-high heat and cook the mixture,stirring constantly until thick.
3. Set the heat to low setting and slowly add the condensed milk until it is evenly distributed to the mixture.
4. Pour into a greased mould or a ceramic dish and leave it to cool for 30-40 minutes. You can also chill it for another hour before serving.

A couple of learnings:

1. When putting it in a mould,make sure there are no trapped "air bubbles" to avoid seeing small holes when you un-mould the tray (see picture above).
2. If you are sensitive to coconut milk, reduce the suggested amount and substitute with some amount of water when mixing to avoid a very lumpy mixture.

Banana Bread

This tasty bread is a product of leftover bananas in my kitchen. I bought the bananas for my baby EJ but the big bunch of Del Monte pieces are more than enough for a 5 month-old to stomach.

So, here comes a basic recipe of banana bread with a twist of orange peel & chocolate tidbits on top. This is best served hot to savor the sweet smelling orange and the chocolate melts in your mouth, hmm...yum,yum!




Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsps baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp ground cinammon
1 egg
1 cup mashed nananas (2 large Del Monte bananas)
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cooking oil
1 tsp finely shredded lemon or orange peel
1/2 cup chocolate tidbits (nuts can also be an alternative)

1. Grease an 8x4x2-inch loaf pan and set aside.
2. In a medium mixing bowl combine all the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder,baking soda,cinammon, add a pinch of salt.
3. In another bowl combine the wet ingredients: egg, sugar, oil & banana. To ensure consistency, I used a hand mixer and added finely shredded orange peel.
4. Add the wet to the dry mixture and stir until homogeneous. The texture of the batter is typically lumpy. Add the choco tidbits on top or you can also fold in nuts.
5. Transfer batter into the prepared pan. Bake in 180C oven for 50 to 60 mins or till a wooden toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool the pan,remove the loaf and set aside on a wire rack.

Makes 16 servings.

A couple of learnings:

• For the fullest aroma, allow the bananas to really ripen almost turning into dark color.
• If you wish to make this bread moist, you can add about 1/4 cup of milk but watch-out in making the batter too runny in texture, the bread will not rise very well.
  

Introduction

This is my brave attempt to have a blog site to post what possibly might be useful-to-share recipes straight from my kitchen. I am no trained cook, just cooking hard from everyday experience.

I thought, I must be NOT ALONE in this planet juggling between work and taking care of a family. So hopefully, this site will be useful to Supermoms like me :-) Here's a record of what's happening in My Kitchen, hopefully, this blog site will serve other families well.