by Penny Angeles-Tan | Mar 19, 2021 | Bon Appetit
I have a confession to make. This was actually the first Purefoods Ready to Eat Viand I experimented with but it didn’t turn out well so I decided to redo it. Since I only eat rice once a week now, I could only wait until my cheat day to make pork binagoongan rice properly. 🙂
The first time I made it I made the rookie mistake of cooking this dish in a pot over direct flame instead of the way I would normally cook rice. It was a mistake because I was so worried about burning the rice at the bottom that I kept stirring it. The end result was the pork slices crumbled. It still tasted good but it wasn’t presentable. Usually, we steam our rice in a steamer but since it was being used I decided to bring out the rice cooker.
For this recipe, we will use the Purefoods Ready to Eat Viand: Pork Binagoongan. I loved making this dish because it really stretched out and fed our entire family with rice to spare!
Pork Binagoongan Rice
This is a quick and easy recipe
Prep Time5 minutes mins
Cook Time30 minutes mins
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Filipino
Keyword: bagoong, comfort food, pork, rice bowl
Servings: 6
Author: Penny Angeles-Tan
- oil
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 onion, sliced
- 1/2 can mushrooms, sliced
- 1 pack Purefoods Ready to Eat Viand: Pork Binagoongan chopped while frozen
- 3 cups washed rice
- 3 cups water
- 2 tbsps butter
In a wok, saute the garlic, onion, and mushrooms.
Add the pork binagoongan mix and simmer until it is melted.
Add the washed rice and mix properly. Be careful not to overmix or the meat will be shredded. You just want to make sure that all the rice is covered in the sauce.
Turn off the stove and transfer the content of the wok into the rice cooker and add the water. Cook.
Once the rice is cooked add the butter and fluff the rice.
Your pork binagoongan is ready to be served and eaten.
Pork binagoongan is usually served with eggplant. In this recipe, I did not include it as I happen to be allergic to eggplant but feel free to add it to your own. You can also add green onions at the end as a finishing touch.
It was delicious! There was so much that each of us had about 1 to 1.5 cups each. Since there was some leftover, my sister decided to jazz it up more by refrying it and adding light soy sauce and scrambled egg. The only thing missing was the sliced mangoes. 😀
by Penny Angeles-Tan | Mar 12, 2021 | Bon Appetit
I first learned how to make paratha/roti in September 2020 and I posted it on our other site, HearthandHomeBuddies.com. Since then I have learned how to make it better and I have definitely improved my technique.
My observations when making paratha
Atta or regular wheat flour? Can we use either?
Using the right flour matters. This affects the outcome of the paratha in terms of texture and taste. I’ve tried making this with atta (Indian wheat flour) and regular wheat flour.
- Atta is finer and softer while regular wheat flour is grainy and rough.
- Atta is slightly more expensive by just 5 pesos more per kilo, but that price difference also translates to a better end product so who am I to quibble over cost? 🙂
- Atta results in a softer, more malleable dough, and softer bread.
- Atta needs exactly half the quantity of flour. For example, if you use 1 cup of flour, then you will need exactly half a cup of water. With regular wheat flour, it is hit and miss.
The good news is, there are many middle eastern stores popping up all over town so atta can easily be sourced.
Is water temperature important?
From experience, I can tell you that room temperature to lukewarm water works best. While hot water will activate the gluten faster, the reality is, if the water is too hot then you can’t hold the dough with your bare hands, what more knead it.
Is there a specific oil to use?
I would say use a neutral oil. The original recipe said to use olive oil but not everyone enjoys the aftertaste of olive oil. You can also use ghee as an alternative. In case you were wondering, ghee is clarified butter.
Sugar
The original recipe did not have any sugar, but I have found that adding a little sweetness makes the paratha yummier. 🙂
Here is my “improved” recipe. I hope you like it!
Paratha/Roti Recipe
An easy to make Indian flatbread recipe
Prep Time15 minutes mins
Cook Time10 minutes mins
Course: Side Dish
Cuisine: Indian
Keyword: chapati, flatbread, paratha, roti
Servings: 6
Author: Penny Angeles-Tan
- 2 cups Atta (wheat flour) additional flour for dusting
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp garam masala
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 2 tbsps oil
- 1 cup water
Preparation
In a large bowl mix the atta, salt, garam masala, and sugar. Add the oil and mix again, making sure that the oil is well incorporated.
Add the water a little at a time while mixing until you use up all the water. As you mix it will become a tacky dough. Knead the dough for a few minutes and add a little flour for dusting, just enough to make the dough a little less sticky/tacky. As you knead the dough it will become less tacky and will become a soft dough ball. This means that it is soft but won't stick to your hand.
Tuck the dough underneath and roll it in your hands to form a ball. Dust the ball all over with flour and then let it rest in the bowl for 10 minutes covered.
On your chopping board or rolling mat, divide the dough ball into 6 equal parts. If you want smaller pieces just divide the dough into more parts.
Take 1 part and dust it and roll it into a ball ... flatten into a disk on the chopping board with your palm and dust again.
Take your rolling pin and flatten the small dough into a bigger disk. If the rolling pin starts to stick add a dusting of clour. Try to roll the dough out as evenly as possible, and not too thinly or the dough will rip when you lift it and the paratha will become too tough and will not be edible. You want the end product to be puffy and soft.
Cooking
Place your pan or flat hot plate on the stove and put it on medium heat. Hover your hand over the plate to test the heat but if that frightens you when you think it might be hot enough, put a drop of two of water on the pan. If the water turns into a bead and starts to dance on the pan, then it is hot enough, otherwise, you will have to wait a few more seconds then test again.
Once the pan is hot enough pick up your rolled-out dough carefully and shake out any loose flour by flipping it from hand to hand. Place the dough on the pan with the rolled side face down.
If your pan is heated correctly you will see your dough start to turn a darker shade and it will start to bubble and puff. Give it about 30 seconds then carefully flip the dough using your flipper/spatula. The dough will balloon a little more.
Give it another 30 seconds then flip it again. Press down on any part of the paratha that you see steam coming out or even just one side. This will help the paratha puff up even more. Flip it again and do the same on the other side. Your goal at this point is to brown the paratha and puff it up more. You want it to have brown spots but not get burned.
If it gets slightly burnt and a hole appears, not to worry. Just press down on the hole with your spatula and the hole will seal up. This will also puff up your paratha more.
Repeat this with the remaining dough. Your paratha is now ready to eat!
Paratha/roti is very similar to a tortilla. The ingredients are mostly the same and the way it is cooked is similar as well. Just like a tortilla, you can put anything in it. Just keep in mind that it is BREAD so whatever you would usually put in bread, you can eat with the paratha. 🙂
If you try this recipe, please make sure to tag me on social media @slvrdlphn and use the hashtag #slvrdlphnrecipes. Let me know, too, if you come up with a tweak that would make this dish different but still delicious!
by Penny Angeles-Tan | Feb 22, 2021 | Bon Appetit
I love eating spicy food. So do my daughter and sister. When I showed them the Purefoods Ready to Eat Bicol Express they were excited to try it.
Purefoods Ready to Eat Bicol Express
But that is just half the household. The other half has a low tolerance for spice but were still willing to try it. This gave me a challenge – how do I prepare this so that it is not so spicy but it will still be delicious?
Home Foodie PH suggestion
Home Foodie PH suggested Bicol Express Pizza so I looked over the recipe
Ingredients:
- 2 pieces store-bought pizza crust
- 1 (450g pack) Purefoods Ready to Eat Bicol Express thawed out in the chiller
- 2 cups mozzarella
- 1 (165 gms) Magnolia Quickmelt cheese
- 1 (100 g) red bell pepper, cut into strips
- 1 (100 g) green bell pepper, cut into strips
For chili honey
- 1 tbsp. chili flakes
- 1/4 cup honey
Procedure:
- Preheat oven to 450o
- Assemble pizza by spreading Bicol express sauce on each pizza crust surface.
- Add mozzarella and Quickmelt cheese to each crust. Top with Bicol express meat and bell peppers.
- Bake for 10 minutes or until crust is golden brown and cheese has melted.
Makes 16 slices
(Yield: 2 pc 12-inch pizza/1-2 slices per serving)
Sounds simple enough, right? And pizza is a great idea because that much cheese would partially neutralize the spiciness so that the rest of the family can enjoy the pizza, too. Unfortunately, not all the ingredients are readily available in my kitchen. One small piece of bell pepper costs ₱48. Mozzarella cheese is not only expensive but is not readily available in nearby groceries.
What I ended up doing
Substitution is key! 🙂
- I did away with the mozzarella and used cheddar cheese all the way instead.
- Goodbye, bell peppers, I can’t afford you.
- chili honey – I didn’t need to make it or use it as the pizza was flavorful in itself.
- pizza crust – seeing as how I used to work in Shakey’s many years ago, I actually do know how to make a pizza from scratch so I decided to make my own pizza crust.
Below is my recipe for Bicol Express Pizza
Bicol Express Pizza
This is a very simple, easy-to-follow recipe for making a pizza at home from scratch. The crust will turn out soft and pillowy and a pleasure to chew.
Prep Time15 minutes mins
Cook Time25 minutes mins
Course: Snack
Cuisine: American, Italian
Keyword: pizza
Servings: 16 slices
Calories: 153kcal
Author: Penny Angeles-Tan
- 1 cup water
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp instant yeast
- 1 tbsp melted butter
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 cups all-purpose flour plus a little extra for dusting later
- 1 pack Purefoods Ready to Eat Viands Bicol Express frozen
- 1 tbsp oil for oiling the pan
- 165 grams cheese or enough to cover the pizza twice
Mix the sugar and the warm water in a mixing bowl until the sugar is melted. Make sure that the water is not too hot then add the yeast. If your water is too hot the yeast will die. Tip: The water should be warm to the touch but won't burn you. Allow it to sit for 5 minutes to allow the yeast to ferment and form bubbles. If this does not happen that means that your water is too hot and your yeast died so you will have to start again. Add the melted butter (make sure it isn't hot!) and mix.
Sift the flour and salt into the bowl. Make a well in the middle and add the wet ingredients and mix. Keep mixing, this will form into a sticky/tacky dough ball.
Take the dough out of the bowl and put it on the rolling mat and knead for a few minutes. Don't worry about your muscles getting sore because this recipe does not need a lot of kneading. You just need to look at the dough and knead until you see that all the ingredients are well incorporated. From my personal experience, it just takes 10 to 15 times to fold and knead and you are good. It is just like playing with Playdoh.
If you are making a round pizza crust then roll it into a circle with a rolling pin. Take note, though, this recipe makes either two standard size crusts or 1 big crust.
Oil your baking pan/tray on all sides and transfer the dough onto the pan/tray and let it rest. This will still expand. In the meantime, turn on the heat in the oven and wait until it hits around 400F.
While waiting, open your frozen package of Purefoods Ready to Eat Viands Bicol Express and cut it up into several strips. and put the strips in the pot (or pan) with 1 to 2 tbsps of water for thawing and simmering. I like to put it on low to medium heat and simmer it for 8 minutes. Turn off the stove after.
If you want to make a rectangular or square pizza you can use your roller to stretch it down and out more. Don't worry that it is too thin, like I said, it is still expanding. if you decide to make your crust into a rectangle then there is no need to make 2 small pieces as you already have one big one.
Once the oven has hit the desired temperature, place the baking tray on the lowest rack of your oven and bake for 5 minutes.
Take it out of the tray and use a fork to pop and bubbles that formed. Scoop the sauce of the Bicol express onto the crust and spread it. Sprinkle a thin layer of cheese on top of the sauce.
Put the Bicol express meat over the cheese and any other topping you want to put on the pizza such as mushrooms, bell pepper, onions, etc.(3)
Top everything with cheese(4) again then put the pizza back in the oven and bake for 10 minutes.
Turn the tray and bake for another 10 minutes.(5)
Your pizza is done and ready to eat.
See the notes after this recipe
Pizza Crust nutrition facts
One slice of the pizza crust is 68 calories.
Purefoods Ready to Eat Bicol Express nutrition facts
As per the packaging, the calories in one serving is 296 calories, but that is assuming 4 servings. Since this is a 16 slice pizza, each slice has 74 calories.
165 grams of cheese divided by 16 = 11.25 calories.
This means that each slice of Bicol Express Pizza = 153.25 calories Notes:
This recipe makes a pizza that is FILLED with ingredients. You can make another crust and split the filling to make 2 pizzas.
- Most cookbooks will tell you to preheat the oven before doing anything else. Personally, I find that a waste of gas so I would recommend not turning on the oven until you actually need it. After all, it doesn’t take too long to heat up.
- Some prefer to thaw first and then cut up but personally, I’ve found that it is easier to cut up meat, especially those with sauces like these ready-to-eat meals when they are frozen. It helps, of course, that I use a cleaver. Since there are so many of us here at home this is my way of making cut-up meat stretch out so that everyone gets to eat.
- Only 3 things are limiting you – budget, available ingredients, and imagination
- I didn’t have any mozzarella so I used cheddar all the way
- If you are using a gas oven this is one way of ensuring that the pizza is cooked evenly. We used to do this, too, at Shakey’s.
The amount of cheese to put is really up to you. I can’t recall the exact weight anymore after all these years but a handful of grated cheese is usually enough to cover a large pizza so for this recipe, you will need 2 handfuls. I think that it would approximately be 165 grams or a small block of cheese.
You can also use cheese squares if you like, but you will likely end up using more cheese if you do. But, as I said, the amount of cheese is completely up to you. 🙂
How did it turn out?
The crust is soft and chewy and delicious and the Bicol express made me very happy. The spice level was just right and the meat was soft and juicy and oh so delicious! My sister even tells me that I could reduce the Bicol express toppings when I add veggies so I could make two rectangular pizzas. Next time I do this I will cut the pieces smaller so that it will be easier to split into more pizzas. 🙂
Try this recipe or make your own. Or, just eat it the Bicol express as is! It is your choice. When I decide to eat this with rice you can be sure it will be over a bowlful of steaming hot rice and probably an egg on top. Breakfast rice toppings, yes! Now I’m hungry again, lol!
Purefoods Ready-to-Eat is available at all leading groceries and supermarkets nationwide. Follow Purefoods on Facebook and Instagram.
by Penny Angeles-Tan | Feb 13, 2021 | Bon Appetit
I love tikoy. I say that every year and every year I mean it. I am the happiest gal in the block whenever my friends would send me tikoy on Chinese New Year. Over the years I have been receiving less and less … I’m lucky if I receive even one small one! The emotional side of me thinks that I must have fewer friends than I used to, which is possible since I have kept mostly to myself for almost a decade now. On the other hand, the logical side of me realizes that times are just hard and it has struck everyone, not just a few.
photo credit to interaksyon.com
If you go to the grocery or any Chinese store and check out what tikoy they have available you will probably see every color of the rainbow as they now make this in different flavors.
Affordability is subjective. If you have the cash to spare it is affordable, but if you live hand to mouth or paycheck to paycheck then it may be a luxury you will opt to forego. Or … hope that one of your Chinese friends would bless you with a tikoy.
My favorite is the brown tikoy, which is made with brown sugar.
How to make your own tikoy
It really isn’t difficult at all. You need three ingredients: sugar, water, and glutinous flour. By default, the tikoy will adapt the color of the sugar so if you use white sugar it comes out white. To mix it up you could add food color (which is what I did to make my tikoy red) or add flavor.
Tikoy recipe
Chinese New Year cake
Prep Time15 minutes mins
Cook Time1 hour hr
Course: Snack
Cuisine: Chinese
Keyword: Chinese cooking, sweet cake
pan
mixing bowl
whisk or spatula
steamer
- 2 1/4 cups water
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 3 c glutinous rice flour
Preparation
Combine the water and sugar in a pan. Turn on the heat and mix until the sugar is completely melted and you have a thin syrup. Set it aside and cool down to room temperature.
Sift the glutinous flour into a bowl. Add the syrup into the bowl a little at a time while mixing. Make sure there are no lumps.
Oil your baking pan/s well. Alternately, you can line your pan/s with wax paper as removing the cake from the pan when it is cooked is not always easy.
Pour in the batter a little over 3/4 of the way up.
Cooking
Prepare your steamer, make sure it is already steaming before putting the pans in.
Place the pans in the steamer and cook for an hour. If you have a cheesecloth you will want to cover the pans with it before putting the lid of the steamer so that no liquid will drop into the batter.
Resting
Remove the pan/s from the steamer and leave it out to rest and set. Don't get tempted to pry it off. It will shrink as it turns cooler. This will take around 2 hours.
Once you have removed the cake/s from the pan, put it in a container and chill in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours, longer is better. like overnight.
In the morning the tikoy will be ready to slice, fry, and serve. 🙂
The usual way of serving tikoy
The no-brainer way to serve tikoy is fried.
- Cut the tikoy into thin slices.
- Beat an egg in a bowl and dip each slice to coat before frying.
- Lightly oil a frying pan and fry each piece on both sides. You know the tikoy is ready when the center is soft and the egg coating is browned.
- Serve and enjoy.
by Penny Angeles-Tan | Feb 9, 2021 | Bon Appetit
Welcome back to my kitchen. 🙂 For dinner today I took a look at my stash of Purefoods Ready to Eat Viands and after a lot of thought, I decided to do something different with the Purefoods Beef Pares.
Beef pares brings back a lot of memories for me. It is one of those dishes that late-night denizens are wont to enjoy – it is served quickly and every bite is flavorful and filling. For many years my husband and I would drop by the pares restaurant not too far from our house after a gig just to grab a bite before heading home. But while it is quick and easy for us, the patrons, preparing it takes a lot of time. This is one reason I am quite thankful that Purefoods decided to produce this line – for doing the slow cooking for me.
Quick and Easy
On its own, this ready to eat viand is simple itself to prepare. Whether you heat it up on the stovetop or the microwave, just put it in a container and heat up for 8 minutes and you’re done! All that is left is to serve it then scoop a serving over hot rice. This package is good enough for four people.
Extending the dish to feed more people
There are seven people in my household and if I served this dish as is then Not everyone will really get to eat (especially since half the family eats twice as much!) so, it was time to once again get creative in the kitchen. Aside from the beef pares I had garlic, onions, carrots, mushrooms, and dangmyeon (Korean glass noodles). I decided to make japchae. With the addition of the noodles, this dish can now feed twice as many people.
Some notes:
When slicing the Purefoods Ready to Eat Beef Pares I would recommend doing this frozen so that the meat is easier to slice into strips and none of the sauce is wasted.
I used onion, carrot, and mushrooms, but really you could add any vegetable you want. Some commonly used ingredients for japchae are leeks and broccoli, and some like using bell peppers.
Technically, I could have used any kind of noodles like canton, bihon, or sotanghon, but I like dangmyeon the best. Sotanghon and dangmyeon are both vermicelli noodles but sotanghon is made from mung bean flour while dangmyeon is made from sweet potato flour. Dangmyeon turns into glass noodles that are thick and kinda sticky, which is what I like about japchae.
The package I bought was 500 grams and for this recipe, I only used 300 grams but I cooked all of it anyway. From personal experience I’ve noticed that usually when there is just a little bit of the dish left there is usually a lot more meat than noodles so I just add the remaining 200 grams to the leftovers, heat them together, and I just add japchae sauce.
This is the japchae sauce I used. I think I bought this and the noodles from Landers but they might also be available at other grocery stores, I just never really looked. You could also add this sauce to the beef pares japchae to make it more flavorful, but I would recommend trying it without first.
As a finishing touch, you can sprinkle toasted sesame seeds on your noodles.
Purefoods beef pares is a savory-sweet dish which made it perfect for making japchae. It takes the guesswork out of having to make a japchae sauce and sourcing exotic ingredients … or buying a bottle of japchae sauce. 😀
Even though I am calling this a “level up” dish it is actually effortless to make! In less than 20 minutes I was able to feed my family! And, as my sister likes to say, it is a complete dish in itself. 🙂
Yum, yum! Prepare this yourself and enjoy! We did. 🙂
Beef Pares Japchae
This dish is a fusion of Filipino and Korean
Prep Time10 minutes mins
Cook Time12 minutes mins
Course: Main Course, Side Dish
Cuisine: Filipino, Korean
Keyword: japchae, noodles, purefoods ready to eat
Servings: 8
Author: Penny Angeles-Tan
chopping board
knife
peeler
large wok or pot
- 1 pack Purefoods Ready to Eat Beef Pares frozen
- 3 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 large onion, cut into strips
- 1 carrot, julienned
- 1 can mushrooms, pieces & stems
- 300 grams vermicelli noodles I used Korean glass noodles aka dangmyeon
- oil
- salt and pepper to taste
Preparation
Boil water in a pot. Once it is boiling place the noodles in and boil it for 5 minutes.
Rinse the noodles in cold water and set them aside.
While still frozen cut up the beef pares into strip-size and set aside. I would recommend putting it back in its original container so that none of the sauce is wasted.
Peel and chop the garlic, onion, and carrot. If you bought whole mushrooms just slice them thinly.
Cooking
On medium heat saute the garlic for about 30 seconds, add the onions. After a minute add the carrots and mushrooms and simmer.
Add the beef pares, mix, and simmer for another 8 minutes.
Add the noodles and mix until all the noodles are covered in the sauce of the pares. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Turn off the heat and serve. Your beef pares japchae is ready to eat!
Purefoods Ready to Eat Viands is available at all leading groceries and supermarkets. The price varies depending on the variant that you get.
by Penny Angeles-Tan | Jan 25, 2021 | Bon Appetit
Purefoods Ready to Eat variants
Purefoods Ready to Eat Viands has 9 different variants and I decided to start with something easy … Pork Humba. For those who are unfamiliar with Pork Humba, it is a sweet and savory dish. This (in my opinion) makes it a perfect filling for siopao, as it will be reminiscent of Pork Asado.
Siopao (sometimes called steamed dumplings) is best known as a Chinese snack, often served with noodle soup.
It’s as easy as 1-2-3
Purefoods Ready to Eat Viands: Pork Humba
Purefoods Ready to Eat Viands are truly easy to serve. it only takes less than 10 minutes to feed our family.
- Take your selected Purefoods Ready to Eat viand from the freezer.
- Thaw it out in the chiller or drainboard.
- Open the package and pour its contents into a pan and heat for 8 to 10 minutes.
It’s that easy! Usually served with hot rice. 🙂
This was the recipe provided by HomefoodiePH and Purefoods for Humba Pao:
Ingredients:
- 1 pack Purefoods Ready to Eat
- 6 pieces store-bought cua pao, reheated to package instructions
- 6 tbsp. chopped peanuts
- 3 tbsp. coriander (wansoy) leaves
Instructions:
- Slice humba into 1/4 inch thick slices. Reheat in a pan with the sauce.
- Assemble by placing a few slices of humba in the pao and drizzling with humba sauce. Serve with peanuts and coriander.
That recipe makes 6 servings.
What I ended up doing
I didn’t have any cua pao and I didn’t want to have to go to the grocery just to buy some. But I did have the ingredients to make siopao buns, so that is what I did. This is the recipe that I used.
Siopao bun
This is the recipe for making just the buns without the filling. You can fill the buns with any kind of food really. It could be savory, or sweet, or both!
Prep Time1 hour hr 32 minutes mins
Cook Time25 minutes mins
Course: Side Dish
Cuisine: Chinese
Keyword: bread, bun, siopao
Servings: 12
Author: Penny Angeles-Tan
mixing bowl
measuring spoons and cup
Rolling Pin
rolling mat or board
steamer
- 1 cup warm water
- 2 tsp dry instant yeast
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 cups sugar
- 2 tbsp oil use a neutral oil
- 1 kalamansi (juice only)
- a little more flour for dusting when kneading
Prepping
Combine the water, yeast, 2 tbsp. sugar, and salt and mix. Make sure that the milk is not too hot or the yeast will die. Let it sit for about 10 minutes. You will know the yeast is alive and ready if it bubbles up.
In a mixing bowl combine the flour, baking powder, remaining sugar, oil, and kalamansi.
Pour the yeast mixture into the flour mixture and mix until fully blended. Knead until it turns into a dough that is smooth and not sticky.
Cover the bowl with a clean cloth and set it aside for 1 hour or until it doubles in size.
Assembling the pao
After an hour, take the dough out of the bowl and put it on your rolling mat or board and knead it a little more then roll it into a log and divide it into 12 equal (or as equal as you can make them) parts, and set them aside on a tray or mat without touching each other. You can roll them into balls for easier handling later. Cover with a cloth until you need them and let them rest for 30 minutes. The dough will rise even more.
Take one part and knead it and make a ball. Dust it with flour and flatten it with your palm then roll it into a flat disk (circle) making sure the center is thicker than the sides as the middle will hold the filling.
Place 1 to 2 spoons of the filling in the middle of the disk and then gently lift the edges to the middle in folds and then pinch and twist.
Take a small piece of baking paper (or waxed paper) and put the bun on it. This will prevent the filling from leaking out. Place the assembled bun on a plate or tray until you will cook it.
Repeat from step 2 of "assembling the pao" for the remaining dough balls.
It's time to steam
Place your steamer on the stove. Make sure there is water underneath or it won't steam. 🙂 Turn it on and wait a few minutes before putting the buns in
In the steaming tray place enough buns without touching. Keep in mind that the buns will still expand. It is likely that not all the buns will fit in one layer so you will need to either put another layer or just cook a second or third batch. Steam your buns for 20 minutes then turn off the stove and let the buns sit in the steamer for another 5 minutes before removing them.
Notes
- You can fill these buns with anything you want. Keep in mind, it is really just bread. 🙂
- If you are cooking more than one layer of the buns, keep in mind that they will not cook the same because one layer will be hotter than the other. In my experience, the buns at the bottom "blossom" better than the ones on the upper layers.
This recipe is based on research from 2 or 3 recipe sites and I adjusted based on my available ingredients and the amount of effort I was willing to put into it. 😀 This is loosely based on the pita recipe I followed last time but instead of grilling the bread, I steamed it. This is the first time that I made this so while I got it to cook and taste the way it should, I couldn’t get the right technique to pinch it closed consistently, hehe. The next time I make this I will most likely fold the buns into cua pao instead of siopao. 😀
How does the Pork Humba taste?
The Pork Humba ready to eat viand tasted just like pork humba should … savory and sweet at the same time. The meat was just the right level of softness and was anything but tough or dry.
I will confess that instead of thawing it in the chiller or drainboard, I decided to put it in the pot frozen and thaw it gently on the stove in low heat.
I also decided to cut it up with scissors in the pot, instead of cutting it on the board with a knife. This was because I didn’t want to waste any of the sauce.
I didn’t get to use all the humba when I made the paos so what was left I set aside I intend to eat tomorrow for lunch. 🙂
Feedback from the fam
Purefoods Ready to Eat Viands: Pork Humba
They loved it! They loved the flavor of the humba and the combination with the siopao bun (phew!) Now I have one more new recipe to add to my repertoire. Thanks for the assist, Purefoods! And thank you, HomefoodiePH for the recipe suggestion. <3
Using the right flour matters. This affects the outcome of the paratha in terms of texture and taste. I’ve tried making this with atta (Indian wheat flour) and regular wheat flour.
Technically, I could have used any kind of noodles like canton, bihon, or sotanghon, but I like dangmyeon the best. Sotanghon and dangmyeon are both vermicelli noodles but sotanghon is made from mung bean flour while dangmyeon is made from sweet potato flour. Dangmyeon turns into glass noodles that are thick and kinda sticky, which is what I like about japchae.
This is the japchae sauce I used. I think I bought this and the noodles from Landers but they might also be available at other grocery stores, I just never really looked. You could also add this sauce to the beef pares japchae to make it more flavorful, but I would recommend trying it without first.
The Pork Humba ready to eat viand tasted just like pork humba should … savory and sweet at the same time. The meat was just the right level of softness and was anything but tough or dry.
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