Sago Two Ways

I've been dying to make these for a while so I'm giving it a shot.  Filipinos call it sago while it is commonly known as bubble tea or boba in the US.  They are very similar but different in the ingredients.  Sago uses pearls an extract from palm trees while bubble tea and boba uses tapioca pearls which are derived from cassava roots or yucca.  They both have the same texture but I like tapioca version because they tend to not fall apart as easily as sago.  They are also much more chewier while sago has a more of a gelatin-like texture.

For this recipe, a great place to get info on making sago is Ellen's Kitchen website.  I got some tips there and incorporated what my mom and grandma have taught me.

The recipe I used was for 1 cup of dry tapioca pearls which should yield enough servings for 6-8.  Of course this variates according to how much tapioca you want in your drink..  The brand I got was from the asian store and it was like an instant version that only took a mere 20 mins to cook and chill.  It tasted the same and had the same texture as the normal white pearls which my mom insist I should have gotten.

 For every cup of tapioca, use 6 cups of boiling water or 8-10 cups to be safer.  These babies suck it a lot of water and can dry out fast.  If you use the quick cook version, you can get away with less water.  Stir it while pouring the pearls in for a bit so they won't stick.  Instant version takes 10-15 minutes to fully expand.  The hard pearl version will take another 20 mins to cook and another 20 mins to sit in the water.  When done cooking and letting it sit for a while, you can drain the water and leave it in a bowl.

Next, make the sugar syrup.  1 part white sugar, 1 part brown sugar, and 2 part water.  I made 1/2 cup white sugar with 1/2 cup dark brown sugar for that extra dark color, and 1 cup warm water.  I would use less water if you want the syrup to thicken faster.  Boil it down but don't let it get too thick or it won't dissolve in your drink but instead sit like a lump of caramel in your cup.  Pour 1/4 cup of sugar syrup in the bowl of tapioca so and mix it in.  This helps the pearls not stick together.

I got some red bean from the H Mart which came in a can.  It has mashed and whole beans in there.  This will go into the shake version I'm making.

Luckily I had access to a little device that takes cup size containers and grinds the contents.  For this, I used 1/2 cup milk, 3 tablespoons of red beans, 3-4 tablespoons of sugar syrup, and fill the rest up with ice.  You can vary the amount you use here.  It's all up to how sweet your tooth really is.

This is that badass little grinder I had at home.  You simply turn it upside down, press down on it and it grinds the content.  It is perfect for making iced shakes.  Love this thing.

 For the simple tea version, you can use any type of black tea, add as much sugar syrup you want, and add the tapioca.  Again, how much tapioca you use is up to you.  Chill in the refrigerator and enjoy.  You can make a big batch of this tea version so you can server it anytime you want, like an iced tea.

The shake version, works the same way.  Pour some tapioca in the glass, then top it off with the shake.  I was able to get 2 cups out of that one mix I made.  You can always variate what you want in there, different fruits is popular these days.

Some things I noted when making these drinks are listed below.

1. Don't use too much milk in the shake, or it won't be as thick as you'd like it to be.
2. Use dark brown sugar if you want the drink to have that black color.  I didn't use tea in this version, just plain sugar syrup and it was fine.  But some sort of black tea will definitely bring it up to another level.
3. 1 cup of tapioca pearls really last for a while.  I have a lot left over.  1 bag of these things cost only $1.99.  Cheaper than buy it for 5-6 bucks at a bakery.
4. Try the white tapioca pearl for the traditional version.  The black color comes from soaking it in black tea overnight.

That was fun.  A lot more relaxing and refreshing to make this versus cakes or cooking.  I hope you guys try it cause this is a great drink/dessert.

My Favorite College Discovery - Calzone

I fell in love with calzone in college when I had my first one in this little diner and it tasted great.  I'm always on the lookout for great calzones like the amazing version at Valentino's.  Yesterday, I grabbed this recipe from www.allrecipes.com and gave it a whirl.

I changed the recipe to fit 4 serving sizes.  I also used this recipe to make the marinara sauce with some adjustments to the recipes of course.

Here are the ingredients used for the calzone and marinara sauce.  Some items aren't seen here but I'll list them as we go through this recipe.

I mixed the yeast with the water till all the yeast was dissolved.  Make sure the yeast on bowl gets dissolved also.

Add flour and mix it slowly.

Keep adding flour slowly so it can absorb the flour incrementally.  If your dough feels tough and a lot of the flour is left over, it may just need a little more water.  Depending on size, add half a teaspoon at a time so it won't get too wet.

Knead the dough till it's elastic and form a ball. I placed in a bowl with some olive oil as per the instructions and I also covered it with a damp paper towel so it won't lose moisture.  It needs to rest for 40 mins.

In the meantime, I started on the fillings.  I substituted mozzarella for the cheddar and mixed it with the ricotta.  Also, make sure to leave your cheeses out so they'll reach room temperature.  It's easier to mix the two cheeses this way.

It's all about multitasking for me.  At the same time, I had a spicy Italian sausage in a pot of boiling water.  The water should be half the height of the sausage.  Keep it covered and let the water evaporate completely and the sausage is good to go.  You can add olive oil and salt to the water to give it flavor while it boils.

On the other burner, I have my marinara going.  I have no pictures of the process but I went with how my mom taught me to prepare the basics of the sauce before I left for college.  Dice onions and garlic.  Heat up the olive oil, drop the onions, let it sweat for a bit till the onions turn slightly translucent.  Add the Ginger.  Sweat it some more.  Add the whole skinned tomatoes.  I would use diced tomatoes next time.  Add the tomato paste.  Next add salt, pepper, oregano, and parley.  Mix, taste, and flavor.  I also added brown sugar, this is more of a Filipino thing I think as we prefer our spaghetti sauce a tad sweet.  I put 2 teaspoons of brown sugar then let it simmer while I went back to the filling.

I took the sausage and chopped it up as well as the pepperoni.  I also have chopped mushrooms and green peppers.

I mixed it all together and I think I had too much of the other condiments.  I need to reduce the mushrooms and peppers next time.

The dough took about a good hour to get a good rise out of it.  You can see the wet paper towel on the bowl.  This really helps keep it moist and won't dry out.

I cut the dough into quarters and rolled it out with a rolling pin.  It was a bit tough so next time, more water.  You just have to do a lot more work with this dough.

With the dough rolled out, I placed a generous helping of stuffing in there.  Don't worry though, it will decrease in size just a tad.

All stuffed and I used a fork to pinch the edges in.  I glazed the calzones with egg and oiled the pan.

30 minutes later, at 375 degrees, they were ready.  They had a nice golden color, thanks to the egg.  Keep an eye on it though while it cooks as your mileage can vary from oven to oven.

Take that marinara sauce and plate your dish.  lastly, I grated some parmesan cheese over it. It looked so yummy, I was starving.

This is what the inside looks like.  It was very yummy and the sauce was just great.

The parents loved the calzones and I had to stop them from eating too much.  It's not exactly on their list of good food to eat at their age.  I was pretty impressed that I could this dish.  I had my doubts because I've never made pasta dough before.  The marinara sauce was a breeze but using proper ingredients as found in authentic Italian recipes, I think I was able to improve on my mom's sauce recipe.

Here are some revelations I found out while try this.

1. Pasta takes time to make!  If you're going to make this for dinner, set time aside for that dough to rise.  This meal took 2 hours from start to finish.
2. Use a lot of cheese versus a lot of mushrooms, green peppers, etc.  This might be unhealthy and it's how I like it I guess, lots of cheese.  Preferably use lots of mozzarella.
3. I would advice having a lot of dough.  The dough I rolled out of very skinny, I would have preferred it to be more.  I made dough for 4 servings.  I think I would made dough for 6 and use it for 4.
4. If the dough gets hard or tough when making it, add water.  A little at a time will do the trick.
5. Get flour on that rolling pin or the dough will stick.
6. Get flour on the surface you're rolling on or it'll stick to it also.
7. If you know some good dough you can buy, do that instead and save yourself 1 hour of cooking/prep time.

Well, that's all I have for now.  I really had fun making this, specially the dough.  It was a little tricky but fun to get your hands dirty.  I can't wait to try this again.

Next recipe this week, bubble tea!

Cheesecake Round 2!

I learned a lot from the first cheesecake and since I had none left for Sunday's get together, I decided to bake a new cheesecake.  I took into account what might be the issues with the last one and adjusted the recipe.  Here's a list of what I did different.

1. I made sure not to overmix the batter.  I mixed each ingredient in just enough so it is even.  Make sure to control the speed and set it to a low speed.
2. I made sure to avoid air bubbles and folded the batter into itself carefully, specially when pouring it in the pan.
3. I cooked the cheesecake a little longer.  About 1 hour 15mins.  45mins at 325 then the rest at 350.  Make sure to check the top of the cake and if it gets too stiff, you might overcook it.  Just cook it enough so the middle core jiggles only slightly.
4. I noticed that the last 10 minutes of cooking might have been too high at 350 so i dropped it back to 325.  When it finished, I left the over door open for about an hour till the oven cooled down and won't keep cooking the cake.  Then I closed the oven door for the next 3 hours.  

 This is the result before it went in the refrigerator.

The next day, I took it out of the ref and plated it.  It was nicely chilled and firm.  And yes, no cracks!

 The final product with a crust because everyone wanted a crust on the fist one I made.  The crust is the same mixture as the bottom from the recipe.  Make sure to make twice as much as the perimeter of the cake takes a lot of crackers to cover it.

That's it.  My cheesecake adventure is complete.  I didn't think I could make a perfect crack-free cheesecake but I did and it only took two tries.  I thought this was going to be tough and it was.  I had to learn a lot just based on what I've researched and it turned out pretty nice.  I can't wait to experiment with this recipe next time I bake it.  Oreo cookie crust sounds great to me.

And if anyone was wondering, it was a hit with the friends for Cheesecake night.  The fresh crust really made a difference.  It was actually more moist and fluffier than the first one.  I thought I might have overcooked it but it was actually perfect.  I'd like to try this with fresh strawberries on top.  I guess I'll wait till spring to try it.

Cheesecake Oh My!

Here are the results of my attempt at baking a cheesecake and I topped it with blueberry preserves.  For an easy time cutting the cake, I recommend using dental floss which worked like a charm.  I need to put something on the outside of the cake, maybe a nice mix of graham crackers or almonds would work great.

The taste was great.  It was exactly how I like my cheesecake, on the borderline of flaky but moist.  It was a bit sweet but everyone thought the taste was just fine.  I might reduce the sugar down by 1/2 cup to a 1 cup for the recipe and it should cut the sweetness down.  You can have it without the preserves as it stands on its own without toppings because it's moist enough.  I think simple fresh fruit would be enough with this.

Now I know how to bake a cheesecake and I can't wait to try another one.  Maybe next time, I'll conquer the age old challenge of baking a perfect cheesecake.  Darn cracks!

Cheesecake Trip

I love cheesecake. It's my weakness. Diet or no diet, I can't resist a nice slice of cheesecake. So what better way to enjoy one than to learn how to bake one of my own. After much research on how it's made, finding a great recipe from All Recipes, and learning a lot of tips online, I made my first cheesecake last night. I learned a lot but I also need to improve on a lot of things to get this recipe right.


The recipe and ingredient came from Chantal's New York Cheesecake with a serving size of 12.


Here are the ingredients I used and the ingredients measured out according to the recipe.

First thing was crush the graham crackers. By the way, when the recipe calls for 15 graham crackers, they actually meant 1 small square of graham cracker. I started out with 15x4 squares (which came in platters of 4) and realized this was too much for 2 tablespoons of butter.


Crush the crackers to manageable size then place them in a zip lock bag.

Use any solid round object like a handy empty bottle of honey and use it as a roller to roll over the bag.


An actual roller would have been better of course. This helps getting the proper crumbs you need.


I mixed the butter and crumbs in a bowl and if you want the crumbs to stick together more, add more butter to give it more moisture to come together better.





I made sure to rub some butter to the pan to make sure the cake won't stick when you pull the cake out later on.





I padded the bottom of the pan with the crumbs as evenly as possible.


I also decided to line the bottom of the springform pan because this pan did leak from an earlier test. It was a Cephalon Classic 9" springform pan from Target store for about 12-13 bucks. You can never tell if a pan will leak or not until you've tested it out. However, this pan is sturdy and will not warp in the oven. I simply cut out a circular aluminum foil and wrapped the bottom with it.


Next, the mix. I placed 4 x 8oz Philadelphia Cream Cheese in a bowl and mixed it together. I added the sugar and started mixing. Oh boy was that a tough job. You better have some guns under your sleeves if you do it by hand.


Luckily, I found an old mixer in my mom's basement and put it to good use. But even the mixer brought problems with it. I'll go over that later.


While in the mixer, I mixed the cream cheese and sugar to a smooth mix. I then followed the recipe and added the rest of the ingredients one at a time.


I kept mixing the batter till I got most of the dreaded air bubbles and lumbs out.


This is what I had at the end. It was nice smooth mix with little lumps or bubbles.


I then poured the batter into the pan, making sure not to fold in any air.


I used a tray filled to about 3/4" its height of water or half the height of the tray for the water bath which should help keep the cake from overcooking on the rim of the pan.


I placed the pan in the tray and put it in the oven at 325 degrees for 45 mins.

I checked back after the timer was done but when I jiggled the cake, there was a jiggle on most of the surface of the cake. I raised the temperature to 350 degrees and put it back in for 15 more minutes. I rechecked and saw only the middle 2" diameter jiggled.


I turned off the oven and let it sit overnight. By morning, the cake had firmed up. As you can see, unfortunately, the dreaded crack was there. I had been trying to avoid that with all my online research but I guess I missed something.

The possible reasons my cheesecake cracked were.

1. I had over beaten the mix with the mixer. The mixer was a little too fast even at the lowest settings. Maybe it's just too old.
2. I might have folded in air bubbles into the mix especially with the way the mixer was. I also think the accessory on it wasn't the right attachment. I need a wider/bigger wisker attachment.
3. I forgot to remove the water bath when I left the cake overnight. I'm not sure but instructions on some websites says remove the water bath before leaving it in the oven.
4. I might not have cooked it all the way.  The cake wasn't firm after cooking it so I was uncertain if I had cooked it properly.  However, the jiggle test should be enough to confirm it's cooked.
5. Changing the temperature from 325 to 350 during the cooking process may have affected the cake. The egg component is definitely sensitive to temperature changes from what I'm reading.

Anyway, I'm pretty pleased with the result and it taste yummy. I'll just have to give it out to friends cause at about 500 calories per slice, it will ruin my healthy diet. Haha!  I learned a lot and I'm hoping my next cheesecake will have a perfect top. I'll post an update on how it turned out after I've cut into it.

The Adventure Begins

A little introduction to who I am and what this blog will be about. My name is Genesis and I'm an avid fan of food in all forms. I'm not trained in any culinary institute and all I know about cooking comes from my mom. She taught me how to cook some dishes when I went to college to live off campus. I've loved cooking ever since but I slowly fell out of the hobby and I've always wanted to fall back into it.

After watching Julie & Julia, I've been inspired to pick it up again. My plan is to cook anything I've wondered how to make and learn something new about the dish in the process. The recipes will come from either my mom, grandma, or the internet, normally, I use www.allrecipes.com for my recipes which is a fantastic site for tasty food. I plan on making at least one item a week and go from there. Join me on this trip and let's learn something together.

This week, I plan on starting my adventure on one my favorite desserts ever, cheesecake. I'll finally crack what makes this dessert so tasty to the taste buds.