chunky potato-corn cream soup

Potatoes are a  major crop that's grown here in the highlands. Thus, it is but fitting for us to eat more of it than buy them skinny fries in the fastfood joints. Make your own "french fries" using home grown potatoes. Not only do we enjoy the good nutritional values, but we get to help also our farmers.

This recipe I came up with due to my kids' love for cream soup.  Since cream soup is just plain i decided to add potatoes for a chunkier treat. Other vegetables may also be added such as broccoli, carrots and beans. 

First, eight medium sized potatoes were peeled, washed then cubed. Then, one head of onion was also cleaned and cubed same size as the potatoes. In a pan with heated oil, saute the onion till its transparent then dump into it the potatoes. Season with a bit of salt and pepper. Continue cooking until they are half-done. In a bowl, dissolve one packet of cream of corn soup with five cups of cold water. Pour into the pan. Add two tablespoons of alaska crema and one fourth cup of grated cheese. The mixture will thicken once it boils due to the cream soup mixture. Adjust the flavor accordingly. Remove from heat when the potatoes are cooked.

Enjoy! :)

 

chicken siomai

This recipe came up due to my kids' love for "chinese food" as they call it which translates to siomai. We buy it at Siomai House and since then they look forward to this treat after our Sunday mass. Lately, them siomai from the house have been all too draining on the budget, with four pieces costing 30 bucks and gone in a minute. What with the big appetite my kids have. So i decided to make our own at home, best part is we get to buy the ingredients knowing that they're fresh, no extenders, less sodium and less MSG too.

For the filling we used 1/2 k. ground chicken bought at the Magnolia chicken station at SM, 1 c. grated carrots, an egg, salt, pepper, 1 pc. Knorr shrimp cube (in place of shrimps), 1 c. crushed Skyflakes (in place of bread crumbs) and 1/2 c. cornstarch. Mix them altogether except for the cornstarch which must be sprinkled evenly at the last part while incorporating it into the mixture. Chill in ref for at least 30 mins. Separate the molo wrappers slowly as not to tear them, prep them up in a plate for easier wrapping later. 

The trick in forming the dumpling is take a wrapper, place on top of your thumb and index finger forming a ring to support the wrapper. Then place a teaspoonful of the filling gently pressing it to take the form of the circled fingers. Gently close up the wrapper onto the filling. Practice makes perfect so don't expect to get it the first time. Continue doing so until you have used up all the filling. 

We used the steamer of a rice cooker to cook them, over a stove top of course. First fill up the cooker with at least half-level of water and let boil. Then carefully arrange the siomai onto the steamer taking care not to cover the holes where steam will circulate. Cook for 15-20 minutes   or until a toothpick inserted into a dumpling comes out clean.  

Serve with soy sauce and calamansi or chili-garlic sauce. For my kids, a bit of soy sauce will do. The thing is, it was so yummy no sauce was needed. I was hoping to make a batch to store in the freezer for future snacks but kids had it until breakfast the next day. Oh well, there will be a next time for this treat! :)