Assorted Pastillas
Topic: Desserts
When we were in college, my cousin Mors taught me the basics of cooking desserts like cassava cake, kutsinta and Milk Pastillas, however I forgot the exact measurements, so when I made this pastillas yesterday, I did not able to finish it quickly eventhough it was very easy to prepare because I was experimenting the measurements like adding condensed milk again when the texture was so rough then adding milk powder again when it became too moist and so on until I reached the good texture. I take note the measurements every time I added an ingredients so that by the time I will make again, it will not be an experimentation anymore. When I was finished, I devided the mixtures into 3 parts, first part was a plain milk, I added chocolate powder to the second part and ube jam to the third part, hence, I ended up having assorted pastillas.

Ingredients:
1 cup milk powder
1/2 cup condensed milk
2 tbsp. chocolate powder (I used Cadburry choco. powder)
1 1/2 tbsp. ube jam
1 tbsp. milk powder
1/2 cup white sugar
butter cooking spray

Directions:
1. Mix 1 cup milk powder and condensed milk in a bowl. Blend well until smooth.
2. Divide the mixtures into 3. Set aside the first part.
3. Add chocolate powder to second part, stir and mix well until the chocolate are blended well with the mixture.
4. Add ube jam and 1 tbsp. milk powder to the other part, stir and mix well until smooth.
5. Cover a tray's surface with the 1/2 cup sugar.
6.Grease a flat surface (I just used large and flat dish) with the butter spray.
7. Take a small amount from the mixtures and roll it in the lightly greased surface until you meet your desired sizes. (I made it almost like a size of a regular pencil). Then, cut it uniformly about 1 1/2 inch length. Place the cut pastillas into the tray with sugar, roll to cover the surface and avoid sticking.
8. Repeat no. 7 until all the mixtures are done. That's it!

Leche Flan with Strawberry and Cream
Topic: Desserts
Actually, my original plan was to make Leche Flan only but when I inverted the first cooked leche flan into a platter, some part of it sticked to the molder, so the outside texture was a little bit rough, it doesn't look good, lol! I don't want to serve it to my hubby since he is very particular with the food's look. According to him, when the food looks good, then definitely it tastes good too. I am different because I will taste the food first before I judge (but sometimes I was also like him, lol). So back to the topic, since the surface was not so smooth, I decided to cover it with the all-purpose cream and strawberries, hmm sounds good, so that's what I made. I cut the strawberries into 4, then microwave it for 5 seconds to make it soft and easy to bite, then I placed it over the cream. My hubby is not fond of very sweet foods but when I served it to him late at night while we were watching movie, he ate all the one you saw in the picture below and he asked me on the next day if we still have it, lol!

Ingredients:
6 egg yolks
1 whole egg
1 1/3 cup condensed milk
3/4 cup evaporated milk
1 tbsp.vanilla
1 c. brown sugar
Fresh strawberries, sliced into 4
All-purpose cream

Directions:
1. Put all the first 5 ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.
2. Caramilezed sugar on the molded tin
until its golden brown.
3. Pour the mixtures on it and steam for 40 minutes.
4. Invert the lechen flan in a plate and refrigerate until cold.
5. Cover the wbole surface with all-purpose cream.
6. Microwave the sliced strawberries for 5 seconds.
7. Top the cream surface with the strawberries and serve.

Donna's Strawberry Gelato
Topic: Desserts
It's been a long time that I did not able to update this blog since my Aunt borrowed my camera few weeks ago, I used my cellphone to take photos of the dishes that I cooked few days ago but I was not satisfied with the outcome, not so clear. She just returned it the other day. The recipe that I am posting now was not mine, it was from Donna's collection of recipes. She showed it to me few months ago and when I saw the strawberries at home, I remembered that she has a recipe for Strawberry Gelato, that's why I asked her to make one. We both tried to make the recipe, she prepared the strawberries while I was mixing the other ingredients. As you see in the picture, the color is not pink like the usual strawberry gelato since the recipe calls for a red food color but we didn't had it at home that time, the only food color left at home was green so that wouldn't be possible. I also added chocolate syrup on top when I served it and it was really good.

Ingredients:
3 cups cut-up strawberries
6 cups milk
1 1/3 cups sugar
12 egg yolks, beaten
Several drops red food coloring

Directions:
1. Place all the cut-up strawberries in a blender container, cover and blend until smooth.
2. Combine 3 cups of the milk, sugar and egg yolks in a large saucepan. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture coats a spoon.
3. Remove from heat. Stir in the remaining milk, the pureed strawberries, and food coloring.
4. Cover surface of mixture with cling film. Refrigerate 8 hours or overnight until chilled.
5. Freeze mixture for 4 hours. Serve.

Mango Float
Topic: Desserts
This dish doesn't float and until now I still don't know what it's origin and why the name is Mango Float. I tried and tasted many variations already, like using graham crackers, sliced bread, chiffon cake, wafer, marie biscuits or soda crackers as its base and what is the best for me was the latter, the skyflakes soda cracker, (I hope skyflakes will give me credit for writing this, lol). My siblings, cousins and friends also like it. I remember one time when I was still in Phillippines and I served Mango Float with soda crackers to our guests and she asked me how did I made it since it tasted different from the mango floats she ate before. She said the combination of the ingredients are really good. My favorite way to prepare it is to refrigerate it for an hour then freeze it for another one hour and the texture will be really great.

Yesterday, I tried using the Swiss made butterfly biscuits in our home. A very nice thin and crispy biscuits with hazelnuts on it. I thought it would make a nice different since the biscuits itself are really delicious but I was wrong, I still prefer my old recipe, the soda crackers. LOL :)

Ingredients:
1 cup thick cream
2/3 cup condensed milk
3 tbsp. melted butter
1 tsp. vanilla essence
1/2 cup mashed ripe mango
1 or 2 ripe mangoes, thinly sliced
Soda crackers (or any biscuits of your choice)
Few slices of mango for garnish

Directions:
1. Blend together cream, milk and butter until smooth. Add mashed mango and vanilla, mix well.
2. In a clear dish, arrange 1 layer of soda/graham crackers at the buttom. Add few slices of mango above the crackers, then pour few amount of cream mixture on it. Cover again with the crackers and repeat procedure until all the ingredients are done. Making the cream as the last layer.
3. Garnish with few slices of mango and crushed crakers.
4. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
5. Freeze for another one hour before serving. (optional)

Strawberries and Cream
Topic: Desserts
It's almost winter season in Kuwait right now, aside from the cold that I felt, one major sign is the strawberries, there are lots of strawberries in the market already but the prices were not desirable yet, however a little bit cheaper compared to the prices few months ago, I'm sure few weeks from now, the prices will be half of its prices now. I managed to buy some when we went to the market the other day, this is one of the things that I love about winter, the fruits available like strawberry and Lebanese afandi (orange) which are my favorites. Okay, talking about strawberry, our favorite way of eating it was of course with cream, I cut the strawberries into halves, then I just simply combined cream and enough condensed milk to sweetened it, then add it on the strawberries, I refrigerate it before serving. I know eating fruits after meal is not advisable as the doctors said but we cannot resist to eat it yesterday after lunch because we really missed eating this tiny, cute, lovable, romantic and delicious fruits! lol:)