An Open Letter to the maker of Lucia Purple Yam

To Lucia Brand of Purple Yam (grated)
Florence Foods Corporation
Navotas, Metro Manila
Philippines

I chose to buy your brand the last trip I made to the Asian store because they were so purplish, it gave me hope that I would not need to use food coloring to come up with that familiar purple color of ube.

However, the very first pack I opened had a dead insect in it. I had to throw it away, and kept praying that the next ones would not have any in it.

I proceeded, quite uncomfortably, to cook the grated ube, knowing that you do not practice sanitation and hygiene in your facility, after seeing that dead insect in the first package (I bought a total of 15 packages). I was rationalizing, "maluluto din naman."

But everytime I would stir, there would appear black specks or tiny tiny twigs? or insect legs? (no hairs, though).

I felt uncomfortable because I was planning to use it to make halaya and to flavor ube ice cream, and I planned to introduce my American neighbors to the Filipino cuisine. Now I am having second thoughts. My fellow Pinays would probably do not care as long as it was cooked (or would they? Should I even serve this to them?)

If you find it difficult to maintain sanitation in your workplace, please just freeze whole or cut purple yams instead, peeled and ready to grate, and sell them as is. I believe that would even be cost-effective for you. I would be willing to buy it at the same price you are selling the grated ube. That would give me peace of mind, just like I have been buying the whole Yucca (in place of cassava) and peeling and grating them myself. I like the uncooked frozen ube better than the powder variety, but if this is the price I have to pay for the frozen grated ube, then I might reluctantly resort to using the powder, or go back to getting the not-so-purplish brand but which was clean.

I do not know if there are others who have the same experience as I do, but I am almost certain I am not alone. So if in the next times I still get such products made by you and have the same problem, I will continue to spread the word on the internet.

Now if only other Filipinos with ube plants can sell their products frozen whole/cut or as plants through ebay, I would be a happy consumer.

Manang's Ube (Taro) Ice Cream

This post is dedicated to Yvette and to every Filipino who craves for ube ice cream but has no access to ready made one.

I called it Manang's Ube Ice Cream because I did not rely on others' recipe for this. I just had the idea brewing in my head for some time now, and I dare say it was one very good idea, and it was successful at satisfying my craving for an ube ice cream.

[UPDATE: 7-8-09
I was not aware that July is officially the National Ice Cream Month, until I read about the Social-Ice Cream contest on Tangled Noodle's food blog. The contest is co-hosted by ScottySnacks and SavorTheThyme. My initial thought on the matter was that, non-Filipinos would probably welcome this with mild reception, with the final product looking so plain, and the flavor unknown to most and probably will not be appreciated by anyone who is not Pinoy, who did not grow up in the Philippines. So far, that is the kind of reception it gets from my family, so I get discouraged bringing any ube-flavored Filipino food to a non-Filipino gathering. However, with TN's prodding, I figured it would not hurt to expose to the world the unique Filipino flavors, so here goes my ube ice cream post as my entry to the said contest.

For non-Filipinos, to give you a background on ube, it is the real yam, purple yam at that. Not the sweet potato that are labeled yams in the grocery stores. Filipinos and other Asians use ube on a lot of desserts, especially ice cream and cakes, probably as often as we use coconuts or sweet sticky rice.]

After our family celebrated the 4th of July here at our house, the next day was a much better day to get together and grill foods and swim in the pool, and with a lot of leftovers (uncooked hotdogs and burgers and BBQ) I called/texted out an impromptu invitation to some of my friends for a pool party. Two of my friends came. Some of the items I served were buco pandan salad and ube ice cream (I served the buco pandan salad on the 4th and nobody among my in-laws were interested in it and I made the ube ice cream the next day using leftover homemade old-fashioned vanilla ice cream (which my in-laws and hubby love soft served as in freshly churned).

Out of the 6-qt (1-1/2 gallons) recipe I made, we had about 3.5 qt (about 2 cups less than 1 gallon) leftover. Instead of putting in the freezer to harden further, I left it in the fridge to just keep it chilled, with plans to turn it into ube ice cream. I would have made a two-hour trip to the Asian stores to get some frozen grated ube, but I remembered I had two packets of powdered ube. So even though I did not really like the ube haleya made out of powdered ube, I thought maybe it would do ok when mixed into ice cream. So I made the haleya and cooked until thick but runny enough to make it easy to mix with the ice cream even when fully cold. I even placed it in the freezer for about 1 hr or so and it was still easy to scoop out and mix with the ice cream. Then I churned to make the soft ice cream, then added the rest of the ube haleya by hand. I deep froze for about 2 hrs enough to give us some hard ice cream (at the center it was still soft).

My Filipina friends' verdict? Parang Magnolia daw("It's like Magnolia's.") [To non-Filipinos, Magnolia is a famous brand of ice cream in the Philippines.]

Me: "Pwede na i-post sa foodblog ko yung recipe?" (So,I can post my recipe in my foodblog?")
Celia: "Oo! Pwedeng pwede!" ("Yes, of course!")

Celia often visits my site too for some recipes. If she does not have success in making, say, leche flan, she is lucky enough to get a chance for an actual demonstration from me (For example, I taught her how to make caramel in the microwave).

The next day my ube ice cream was very very hard I had to zap in the microwave for 1-1/2 minutes (in increments of 30 second) to easily scoop out. But it was not icy gritty at all. Not as smooth as Magnolia in my opinion, but maybe because I added too much haleya (you know how frozen haleya can get too tough). But who complains anyway of having too much real flavor into something such as this? Our usual complaint about flavored foods (ice cream, ensaymada, etc.) is not having enough of the real flavor (bitin ba), and too often loaded with the artificial flavoring. Well, this one is packed with real goodness of ube. The pandan flavor adds volumes to its goodness.

Ingredients:
1 gallon or less Old Fashioned Vanilla Ice Cream (Click to get to its recipe page; make 6 qt if you want to experiment with different flavors or just leave out some as plain)- refer to the link on how to make it. You NEED to have an ice cream maker, rock salt, and crushed ice. I have been using the Rival Ice Cream Maker for 3 years already.

Ube Haleya
1 packet powdered ube (4.06 oz)
2 cups heavy cream
2 cups milk
1 tsp pandan flavor (clear colored)
enough purple food coloring to achieve the tint as desired (both for haleya and the final ube ice cream mix)

Instructions:

Prepare the old-fashioned vanilla ice cream. Chill in the fridge good before freezing. This is your base for any flavor you want. Place the aluminum ice cream maker bucket in the freezer.

Prepare ube haleya and chill until cool enough to not melt the fat content of the heavy cream in the vanilla ice cream.

(The fat content of heavy cream, especially ultrapasteurized, plus the egg custard in the base help in emulsifying the mixture. The flour when cooked, plus the cooked ube, both help in hindering any ice lattice formation by the water content. These factors help so that the resulting ice cream will not give you ice crystals. Well, that's how I have come to understand the science behind ice cream making.)

Mix half of the ube haleya with the ice cream base. Place in the cold aluminum bucket, cover and position in the plastic outer bucket.Run the ice cream maker. Make sure the aluminum bucket is covered well before you start placing ice and rock salt around. Keep adding ice and rock salt until the motor stops running. This is the soft ice cream stage. Finish hardening the ice cream by transferring into an ice cream container and deep freezing it. Cover the top with cling wrap to avoid freezer burn if you have air space in the container.

Ube & Yema Ensaymada (aka Pan de Pastel), and Chocolate Ensaymada

Bobong gave me the idea to try using yema as filling for the supersoft ensaymada. So I made a whole batch of ensaymada into ube ensaymada and yema ensaymada. Bobong said the yema-filled ensaymada is called pan de pastel in Camiguin and looks like pan de coco. I just don't know if it is also topped with butter, sugar and cheese, but I did it anyway.

I have no recipe really to share for these. Just use the supersoft ensaymada dough, have yema and ube fillings ready, and see the slideshow below. Work with everything cold already so handling the dough and fillings will be easier. The results of yema-filled ensaymada was so good, thanks to Bobong! Ube, needless to say, is as good as ever for ensaymada.

I had extra dough to make 6 pieces, which I filled with chocolate chips, both milk choco and white choco. I shaped the dough as if they were hopiang baboy. Without toppings, I let my husband have a taste of it (I baked them in my Nu Wave and turned out perfect). Husband liked them so much! My sons did too!

Ingredients:
supersoft ensaymada dough
yema
ube haleya
chocolate chips (milk and white)
topping (butter and sugar to taste, creamed; grated cheese)

Instructions:

Prepare the dough day before. Prepare yema and ube day/s before. Work when these are completely cold.
Grease pan.
Place dough on surface generously sprinkled with flour.
Cut dough into pieces about 2 ounces each (up to you, really). Flatten with the heel of your palm.
Place filling at the center. Gather the edges and seal.
Place on greased pan seam side down. Flatten a bit (or you can leave them rounded like balls). (If you are going to bake right away, you may opt to use muffin pans or brioche molds.)
Optional: Freeze covered with cling wrap for 3 hours at least, then transfer to bags (this is for those who want a good stock of these but want them freshly baked, a little at a time, like I want them.)
Let rise in warm, draft-free environment until double in size.
Bake in 350 deg F oven for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown (please use aluminum pan to avoid overbrowning of bottom). [I baked mine (few pieces at a time) in Nu Wave for 10 minutes without the need to preheat.]
Let cool completely and place in plastic bags if you are not going to eat right away.
Otherwise, cream butter and sugar. Apply to ensaymadas. Top with grated cheese (not necessary for chocolate, but it is up to you if you want to play with flavors).

UPDATE 6-15-09: You may want to use the dulce de leche as filling to make the pan de pastel. If you review Bobong's pan de pastel photos in the photo gallery, it is pretty much like pan de coco with dulce de leche filling. As shown on the photo on the right, I put the dulce de leche in a ziploc and piped out about a tbsp onto a dough piece, then proceeded to wrap it like how I wrap pan de coco. You may then enjoy plainly or with topping.

Sapin-Sapin

This is my entry for this week's LaPiS theme: Tricolore. Not counting the latik topping, sapin-sapin itself is an interesting layer upon layer of 3 colors and flavors.

I have long been wanting to try making sapin-sapin. With the many recipes calling for rice flour or galapong or coconut milk extract (gata from kinudkod na nyog), it was not clear to me what the proportions were, what exact rice flour to use, etc. So, I chose one recipe to use as a guide, and although it listed rice flour, I used glutinous rice flour instead (hoping my common sense would lead me right). I mixed the base using hand mixer and tasted it first to decide whether I liked the sweetness, which was a bit bland for me, and the batter was quite too dry for me, so I added condensed milk (basing on another recipe which apparently comes up with very runny sapin-sapin). I had canned langka (jackfruit), leftover ube halaya and ube cream cheese filling, and half a pack of frozen shredded young coconut. I shortened the steaming time in between layers to 10 minutes instead of 15, and the final layer I kept at 15 minutes. I brushed the final outcome with coconut oil on top. I loved the taste (although the jackfruit was quite predominant if you taste all layers at once), and the consistency was perfect! Not runny nor too hard. I loved it! My younger son liked it as well (my older son has not tasted it yet to this time, and hubby is not interested (he did not like the texture).

Of course, before I made this, I prepared the latik first.


Ingredients:

The batter base:
3-1/2 cups glutinous (sticky) rice flour
1 cup white sugar (or more according to your taste)
1 can 14-oz coconut milk (Premium, Thai)
1/4 cup milk (I just added to coco milk to total 16 oz)
1/2 can 14-oz sweetened condensed milk

Flavors and colors:
food colorings (yellow and purple)
1/2 cup langka, chopped
1/2 cup shredded young coconut, chopped well
1 cup ube halaya

Instructions:

Prepare latik as previously posted.

Prepare steamer with enough water to not run out by the end of 35 minutes of steaming. Prepare bamboo steamer also by lining with banana leaves, wiped dry and brushed with coconut oil.

In a bowl, beat well the rice flour, coconut milk, sugar and condensed milk until well blended. [Taste with your finger at this point to adjust.] Divide into three and place in separate bowls.

Chop the coconut (I used the chopper). Mix with 1/3 of the batter with a spatula. Place in prepared bamboo steamer, cover (with bamboo steamer cover) and steam (with pot covered) for 10 minutes.

Chop langka. Mix with 1/3 of the batter, add 20 drops of yellow food coloring (McCormick). Mix well with spatula. Place on top of first layer. Steam for 10 minutes.

Using blender, mix the ube well with the third bowl of rice flour mixture. Add purple food coloring (I used concentrated purple coloring for cake icing, Wellington brand, by using toothpick dipped into the food coloring then swirled in the batter. I repeated doing this with fresh toothpick until I achieved the desired color. However, when cooked, I realized I added too much, since the whiteness of uncooked rice flour was gone when it was cooked, so the purple color was too pronounced at the end of cooking!). Add on the second layer and steam for 15 minutes.

Let cool. Brush top with coconut oil. Top with latik and enjoy warm or chilled!

To store: Wrap individual servings tightly with cling wrap. You may opt to chill for consumption within the next few days, or freeze by placing in freezer bag each serving wrapped in cling wrap. Reheat in microwave for 20-30 seconds (timing may vary depending on the size and wattage). Depending on your cling wrap, you may leave it on while you microwave if it is microwaveable. If not, it might melt so remove it prior to reheating, place the piece on a small plate and cover with another plate.

Ube Cake Roll

As I mentioned before, my first attempt at ube roll failed. So I tried a second time. I based the recipe below on a pumpkin roll recipe from epicurious, but I used 5 eggs only because that was all I had in my fridge, and they were jumbo anyway (recipe called for 6 large eggs). I also omitted the spices and replaced it with pandan essence plus the food coloring. I goofed, though, in that I broke the yolk of one egg, so I just placed the whole thing along with the rest of the egg yolks, and I was left with only 4 egg whites to whip up to make the sponge.

Now this is not in anyway like that of Goldilocks, but I was able to come up with a good thickness and sponginess of the cake, and I loved the cream cheese filling (the recipe of which I based on a pumpkin cream cheese filling shared by my friend Fe) . My kids were very excited to try it, and they loved it. I offered to hubby.

Hubby: I already tasted that before.
Me: This is a different recipe.

So maybe out of politeness, he said he would taste just a pinch off the edge.

Hubby: Hmmm. It's good! It reminds me of pumpkin roll that Mom used to make,with cream cheese filling.
Me: I based the recipe on pumpkin roll but I used ube instead of pumpkin.
Hubby: I didn't like the pumpkin roll.
Me: So, you don't like this?
Hubby: O, I like it. I did not like the pumpkin roll, but this is good. As a matter of fact, can I have half of that slice?

My husband usually does not have dessert right after supper, so this is a good sign. I shared with him half of what I had on my plate (and I ended up getting another smaller slice.

I was quite successful in rolling this cake without a single break. I probably did the right method basing on tips I read before: don't over beat the egg whites; don't overbake; and roll while hot.

The recipe below will only be for the cake. For the filling, refer to Ube Cream Cheese Filling post. Before you start baking, separate the eggs while they are cold. Best to whipe whites when they are room temp. Also, take out your cream cheese and butter to soften at room temp before you beat to make the filling.


Ingredients:

3/4 cups cake flour, sifted
5 eggs, separated
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup ube haleya
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp pandan essence
25 drops purple and 10 drops blue food coloring (up to you to come up with the color you want)

Instructions:

Line a jelly roll pan (15 in x 10 in) with wax paper. Lightly grease all over, including sides.

Pre-heat oven to 375 deg F. Beat yolks and sugar for about 3 minutes until creamy light yellow in color. Add ube, pandan essence and beat until well blended. Add food coloring to desired color intensity. Add flour and blend well. Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry (about 2 minutes or so). Fold into the batter in 3 parts. Transfer to pan. Bake for 12-15 minutes or as soon as top springs back on light tapping of your finger or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

While baking, prepare a clean flour sack (not towel). Sprinkle a generous amount of confectioner's sugar so cake does not stick to the towel. As soon as cake is done, transfer to towel, peel off wax paper, then roll with the towel starting on the short end. Let cool completely before frosting.

Ube Cream Cheese Filling

From Ube cream cheese filling

I am making a separate post for this because I used this not only for my (failed) ube cake attempt, but also because it made my basic ube haleya very yummy. So I figured it has earned itself a separate post. Also, I am still gonna experiment again with ube cake, which will have its separate post once I have found a satisfactory recipe for it (and I will try not to deviate too much from those recipes available online).

Ingredients:
8-oz cream cheese, softened
1 stick butter, softened
1-2 cups confectioner's sugar
1/2 cup ube haleya
1 tsp pandan essence (clear-colored)
10-15 (or more) drops of purple coloring [optional - you might like the contrast of colors]

Method:

Very easy. Blend well all ingredients. Add food coloring as desired, then beat some more. Use as filling for your ube roll (can also be used as frosting, but this is very sticky if you will wrap in cling wrap and put in the fridge. Better to use buttercream frosting for the purpose as it does not cling to plastic after refrigeration).

Ube Haleya/Halaya/Jaleya - the Basics

From ube haleya

UPDATE [2-3-09]
I cooked this again recently, and came up with my own recipe using the grated uncooked ube in the photos below.

Ingredients:
2 (14-oz grated ube, uncooked)
1-15 drops purple coloring
5 drops blue coloring
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) butter
1 can (14-oz) condensed milk
1 can (12-oz) evap milk
1-2 cups sugar (depends on your taste)

Method:
Puree the grated ube. On low heat, melt the butter, add ube, condensed, and evap milk. Stir constantly. Add sugar according to your taste. Cook until sticky/gooey to your desired consistency.

I placed these in sterilized jars and processed in boiling water canner for 30 minutes. I am now experimenting on shelf-life. I have one jar out in room temp and I check daily if it starts to grow mold. After two weeks, I will open it and see if it is not ruined (I hope it won't!). Meanwhile, I have the rest in jars also (I made a total of 5 8-oz jars with some excess to eat) placed in the fridge for future cooking/baking experiments.


This will be my basic ube haleya recipe, which I will use to make ube cream cheese filling, ube cake roll, ube buttercream frosting, ube ice cream, ube ensaymada, and ube hopia in the future.
~~~~~~~~~
I am actually not ready to post about this yet...If not for my promise earlier, I would not post this now. But I want to keep my promise.

I have made ube haleya out of what ingredient I had -- grated uncooked ube -- by trial and error. I have not come up with a good proportion of ingredients to make a final recipe here. (I have not tried making haleya using the powder form...or have I? Maybe I did and failed to achieve a satisfactory result.)

After I made the basic ube haleya, I experimented making ube cake, using both powdered and the haleya I made. It ended up in tragedy, mainly because I was not following a tried and tested recipe. I had my own theories I wanted to prove, and they were proven wrong...teehee! Ngek!

Anyway, out of the ube cake experiment, I made a filling which turned out yummy, enough to make up for the bad turn out of the cake itself. I had some leftover of that which I placed in the fridge.

Then just a while ago, when I had another craving for ube haleya, I took out of the fridge the little haleya that was remaining, and the other jar of the filling which I mistakenly thought of as another unfinished jar of haleya. When I realized it was the filling, I added it to the haleya (instead of the usual butter that I add), 1 part of filling to 2 parts of haleya. Then I reheated in the microwave for 30 seconds...an accidental mistake since I was not really planning on heating up the filling.

Oh well, I thought I would just mix the two together, maybe it would turn out okay anyway...

And what resulted was probably what I would label as the yummiest ube haleya I have ever tasted in my whole life...

Now I am on a quest to come up with a clear recipe to recreate that...And since right now I have no exact measurements, let me just describe to you how I made the basic ube haleya that I came up with...then I will follow with the post of the filling that I made for the cake (never mind the cake! I will experiment again on that later). During these times, I should be coming up with a well-defined recipe for the yummiest ube haleya I have ever had.

So what I will share here with you is the "how" of my ube haleya adventure.

The basics:

Researching the internet for recipes showed me to "boil the ube first then mash." My dilemma was not even knowing whether my grated ube was already boiled then mashed. I took two 14-oz packages of grated ube (pale in color) then cooked it with 1/2 stick of butter, 1 can of condensed milk and some (I added probably a cup) whole milk, all the while stirring the saucepan until the mixture was quite getting dried up...but I would try to taste and it would still be gritty...as if not yet fully cooked (that's the point that I realized the grated ube was uncooked, really). So, I was already considering of just throwing everything away...I just felt it was a disaster...but I thought better of it. My stubborn self just had to seek ways to resolve the dilemma.

I added 1/2 cup plain water to further cook without scorching...then I thought of pureeing the mixture to make the ube more homogenous...I added some more (1/2 cup) cold water, stirred, then dumped into my food processor. I pureed for about 2 minutes each batch (filled to max line). Then I proceeded to cook on the stovetop. When it felt like it was cooked, I adjusted the taste by added more granulated sugar, with 1/2 cup increments, until I was satisfied with the taste. At the same time, I adjusted the purple coloring by adding drops of food coloring. I did not want it to be too intense (it just felt too unnatural for me). Good thing it did not affect the taste. I also added 1 tbsp of butter every now and then until I was satisfied. I stopped when I achieved the consistency that I wanted (I did not want it too pasty. I wanted it to have more body, unlike those in the jar, which to me are too runny/soft, not to mention to artificially tasting.

There...I had ube haleya to enjoy and experiment with to make ube cake for the days that followed...I liked eating it with slathered with butter. My younger son liked it plain. My older son was freaked out with the purple color...(hindi ata nakatikim nung nasa Pinas pa). This will be the same filling I will use for hopiang ube.

Next: How I made that nice ube filling...

For now, let me experiment with my next batch of haleya to come up with a good recipe for it.