Hare Krishna!
Below is the March 2011 update for ISKCON Philippines. Devotees can also download the newsletter in PDF form by clicking this link:March Newsletter
For further inquiries, devotees can contact:
ISKCON Philippines Communications
Email: iskconcommunicationsph@gmail.com
Mobile phone: Sridama dasa 0917 8210951/ 0916 5240951
Manjula devi dasi 0917 8218324/ 0906 3168324
Landline: +63 62-3582210
Malati
Posted in Iskcon Philippines | Leave a Comment »
I’d been craving for Filipino food lately; the one that my mother used to cook! Even though almost all of those culinary memories are associated with meat and fish, I still can’t help but to long for my mother’s cooking. I’m certain it’s not the taste I’m hankering for, but it’s the amount of love and care my mother put into preparing and cooking the food. One of my personal favorite, is the one w/ black beans savory sauce with bokchoy! I love the pungent smell of black bean sauce! I know it sounds weird, but for me, the aroma of it brings back happy childhood memories. So, to satisfy my cravings, I made some veggie 2na with black bean sauce, bokchoy, and added some seasoned tofu. I also added my own masala concoction into this one, hahaha! If you notice in this recipe, a lot of tomatoes are needed. Since the black beans sauce is so salty, the tomatoes helps to mellow it down.
Ingredients:
veggie 2na (about 6-8 pieces)
seasoned tofu (optional)
2 tbsp of black beans sauce
2 tsp of white sugar
1 big tomato (cut in small pieces, if you can’t avail of a big tomato, 3 medium size tomatoes will do too)
2 tbsp minced ginger
2 cups water
1 tsp sesame oil
2 tsp peanut oil
3 cluster of bokchoy
2 medium size red and yellow sweet bell pepper ( cut into small cubes, and you can used any color you want)
broccoli florets (about a handful)
some chives for garnishing
Masala:
1/2 tsp Hungarian paprika
1/2 tsp grounded black pepper
1/2 tsp hing/asoefatida ( you can buy this in any Indian store)
Procedure:
1. Pan fry the veggie 2na until golden brown. Set aside.
2. Cut the seasoned tofu into small cubes and pan fry. Set aside.
3. Cut the bokchoy and separate the leaves from the steam. Cut the steam into medium size cubes.
4. In a hot pan, pour in the peanut oil. When oil is hot, put the ginger and cooked it until slightly brown. Add in the masala and stir it with the ginger.
5. Mix in the tomatoes, bell peppers, and seasoned tofu and add the 2 cups of water. Simmer for 2 minutes.
6. Add the black beans sauce, sugar, bokchoy steams, and broccoli. Stir and simmer again for 2 minutes.
7. Add the bokchoy leaves and sesame oil, and do a quick stir.
8. Lastly, put the veggie 2na and simmer it for a second. Garnish it with some chives.
Posted in Cooking | Tagged black beans, bokchoy, vegetarian | 1 Comment »
My first try in making Hong Kong style Snow Skin Moon Cake! The green one is flavored with Pandan essence, while the pink one is coconut flavor. Both have Adzuki bean paste w/ walnuts filling. (^_^) I just followed the ingredients and procedure from this video.
However, instead of only 80 gms for both of the rice flour and the glutinous rice flour, I did 100 grams for each, since I find it kind of watery with the 200 grams of milk. Also, the red bean paste filling I use is store brought, and I added some chopped walnuts on it.
1. Use a cling wrap when you’re kneading the moon cake dough. In this way, your dough is smoother and it won’t stick to your hands.
2. For the cooked starch, I just steamed a couple tablespoon of corn starch covered with paper towel for 15 minutes.
P.S.
Excuse my blurry pictures, for I don’t have a camera (it’s broken 
) Instead, I took the photos via my iPhone.
Posted in Baking, Cooking | Tagged cake, moon cake, snow skin | 1 Comment »
Adobo is a very popular method of cooking in the Philippines. Perhaps, it’s the most popular and most distinguished among all Filipino cuisines, unfortunately, it’s commonly associated with meat. It has simple ingredients and very flexible procedures, so I come up with my own version of vegetarian adobo. You can either cook it right away, or have it marinated and cook the next day. Either way, the result is the same, yummy!
Tofu Adobo
Ingredients:
sliced tofu (sliced as you like but just thick enough in size; I cut mine in triangular shape)
1/2 cup lemon juice
6 pieces of slice lemon
1/2 cup of soy sauce or Bragg aminos
dried bay leaves
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp black pepper
sliced ginger (about 1/4 cup)
1 tbsp of oil
1 tsp of sesame oil
Procedure:
1. Drained and sliced the tofu and deep fry (you can pan fry also), set aside.
2. Slice the lemon and ginger and set aside.
3. In a bowl combine, the soy sauce, lemon juice, bay leaves, salt, pepper and sugar stir well, this will be our adobo sauce.
4. In a hot pot, put the oil and sauté’ the sliced lemon, ginger and about 3 pieces of bay leaves.
5. Stir in the fried tofu, and let it simmer for 2 minutes.
6. Add the adobo sauce,mix well and make sure that the tofu are fully coated with the sauce, simmer for 2 -3 minutes then add the sesame oil.
7. Offer and serve with love 
Hare Krishna!
Posted in Cooking | Tagged adobo, tofu, vegan, vegetarian | 1 Comment »
What would it take for a noodle gaga like me? Simple, just dare to cook all those noodle varieties available. From pansit bihon to pansit palabok, Italian spaghetti to Korean jab chae. Heck, even from instant ramen to the unbeatable instant pancit canton, I tried it all and dig it! Come to think of it, I survived my college days by eating instant noodles. Yes, the lazy way of just putting hot water, and viola, you have a hot serving of a hearty noodle. But since I got married, cooking the instant way has to change, or else my husband will disown me,LOL! I’d been eating noodles since time immemorial, in which the amount of noodles I’d eaten could encircle the globe to-and-fro beating Michael Palen, hahahaha! So, this time, I dare myself to cook the famous Pad Thai. I had never cooked Pad Thai, and I always wanted to learn how to do it. At first, I was really intimidated, but after reading some blogs and articles, I conditioned myself not to back out.
One of the best blogs that I find very helpful on how to cook Pad Thai for beginners, is Chez Pim’s blog. In there, she thoroughly explained everything up to the last bits and pieces of ingredients, procedures, and even cooking tips. The article is a long read, but trust me, it’s worth your time. When you’re done reading it, I can assure you that you are now fully equipped on how to make your very first and own Pad Thai, just like me (^_^) Good luck on your Pad Thai quest, and soon enough, you’ll forget about take out!
Click here at Chez Phim on tutorial on how to cook Pad Thai.
Posted in Cooking | Tagged pad thai, vegan, vegetarian | Leave a Comment »
Hmmmm….I miss my sio pao (pronounced as “shopaw”), and for that, I decided to made some. Sio Pao is a famous snack in the Philippines. It’s a good food on the go and very affordable. Making sio pao is not complicated at all even for first timers. You just need to be time conscious when you’re waiting for the dough to rise, otherwise you’ll over grow the dough, and this can really affect the texture of your dough resulting to a dry and heavy buns. When deciding on what fillings to make for the buns, just feel free to experiment, or I may say, do as you please. I decided to do a sweet filling which is made of sweet purple yam just because it’s my favorite,lol!
Ingredients:
Dough:
4 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
3 tbsp cooking oil
3 tsp dry yeast
1 cup lukewarm water
1 tbsp sugar
Filling:
For my filling, since I use a powdered purple yam, I just followed the instructions on the packaging. However, for a salty filling, you can use a some scrambled tofu,minced cabbage and carrots. Just stir fry it, add some soy sauce and any spices you like, but make sure that it’s not liquidy to avoid any problems with the dough.
Procedure:
1. Sift the flour and baking powder, then add up the 1/2 cup of sugar and the 3 tbsp of oil.
2. Mix together the yeast and sugar in a lukewarm water and stir until it’s lump free and wait till its bubbly.
3. Pour in the liquid mixture in the flour mixture and mix well. Form into a ball and cover with a damp cloth.
4. Leave the dough to rise for 1 hour or until it doubles its volume.
5. Once the dough arises, punch it in the middle and let it rise again for another 30 minutes.
6. After 30 minutes, knead the dough in a floured surface until it is smooth and not sticky.
7. Divide the dough into 2 balls and roll it into a log then cut it into small balls.
Note: I weighed my balls into 75 grams each just enough for a regular bun size, and it makes about 14 buns.
8.Flattened the balls into a circle and put the filling into the middle.
9.Pull the sides of the dough into the center in closing the bun.
10.Place the bun into a 4″x 5″ square parchment paper and cook in the steamer for 15 minutes.
11. After 15 minutes, viola! Your sio pao is ready
Posted in Cooking | Tagged pao, sio pao, steam buns | Leave a Comment »
My first attempt in making a Rainbow Cheesecake. I’m quiet satisfied with it, but there’s still room for improvements! I will try to post the recipe and a tutorial next time about this yummy delight. This is a vegetarian (eggless) cheesecake, by the way.
Posted in Baking, vegetarian | Tagged cake, cheesecake, eggless cake, vegetarian | 1 Comment »
The hubby was so fascinated with this exotic refreshment while we we’re having one of our bon-a-petite dinner in one of Tampa’s famous vegan resto. When we got home, he went straight to our pantry and checked if we have the ingredients. A few minutes later, he started boiling,blanching, and working out the blender. The next day, he continued with his gastric driven enchantment, and viola! His very first home made horchata is ready to satisfy his quench, and of course, I was enjoying it too Summer is coming, and I bet you’ll gonna love this Mexican delight.
Place the mixture in the blender jar and blend for at least 3 – 5 minutes until the mixture is smooth and no long has a gritty texture. Add 2 cups of water and blend again for just a few seconds. Place a large sieve over a mixing bowl. Line the sieve with 3 layers of damp cheesecloth. Pour in the rice mixture, a little at a time and keep stirring to help the mixture go through the sieve. Once all the liquid has passed through to the bowl gather the cloth together at the top, give it a twist and squeeze out any additional liquid.
Now add 2 more cups of water and stir in as much sugar as you’d like, to taste. If the mixture is too thick, add some additional water.
Cover and refrigerate. The drink should keep several days, refrigerated.
Serve in a tall glass over ice.
Posted in Cooking | Tagged horchata | Leave a Comment »
My god brother Sridam and his good wife Manjula ( who happens to be one of my bff 
) just sent to me the ISKCON Philippines February 2011 newsletter, and I would like to share it to everyone, especially to those who haven’t received the newsletter yet. Below is the said newsletter, and if you want to download it, just click this link: February Newsletter
Posted in Iskcon Philippines | Tagged Iskcon, Krishna | Leave a Comment »
Ingredients:
2 1/2 c flour
3/4 c sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup condense milk
1/4 c butter milk
114 gms butter
Procedures:
1. Sift the flour, baking soda and baking powder together.
2. In a mixer, mix sugar,butter,condense milk, and vanilla for 2 mins until mixture becomes fluffy.
3. Add the flour gradually.
4. Pour in the butter milk after all the flour is done.
5. Put in a buttered baking pan and bake for 30-45 mins with 325 degrees F.
As for the purple yam, you can buy them mostly in your nearest Asian stores. Just follow whatever is in the packaging’s directions on how to cook it, and you’re good to go 
.
Posted in Baking, vegetarian | Tagged butter cake, eggless cake, purple yam, vegetarian | 2 Comments »
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 | B h a k t i n S h r … on Krishna Lunch’s Worshipa… |
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 | manjari on ISKCON Philippines |
 | Sophia on Krishna Lunch’s Worshipa… |
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