Pilipinas Recipes

Did you ever try to taste “Atsara”?  It is no secret that we Filipinos love Atsara.  In fact, in every meal of every Filipinos, Atsara can be found as a side dish. The Filipino version of Atsara Recipe equivalent to the pickle relish, though we enjoyed it in a different way.  We usually paired with fried foods and rice.  It was like the ketchup to our burger or fries, and it went with just anything.  We love the taste of sweet and sour flavor, some like hot and spiciness of Atsara.

Contrary to popular belief, atsara is not the same as Sauerkraut – a German side dish which they use cabbage that has been fermented and is pickled with just vinegar and no sugar or Achaar – an Indian mixed pickle that contains lotus root, lemon, carrots, green mango, green chilies and other ingredients.

Atsara Recipe Tips

Whilst our Atsara Recipe is a pickle made from grated unripe papaya.  Papaya, of course, a well-known tropical fruit in the Philippines and readily available most of the year.  Consuming papaya has healthy benefits, it includes a reduced risk of Heart Disease, Diabetes, aiding in digestion, lowering blood pressure and healing the wound.  Papaya also use as skin-exfoliating and beautifying.  Beauty soap with papaya extract are commonly used now especially among women.

The preparation of making Atsara is easy.  Start with unripe or green papaya.  Grate the papaya, sprinkled with salt to sweat out its liquid, then squeeze out the juice.  The carrots, ginger, bell pepper, onion, and garlic are chopped into whatever shapes you want.  Raisins and pineapple chunks may be added, and chilies, black pepper to complete the mixture, then boiled vinegar and sugar are poured on to it.  The mixture is placed in airtight jars where it will keep without refrigeration.

Atsara is best served after 2 days so the flavors are better infused.

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Taho is a sweet comfort food made from soft Tofu, Brown Sugar syrup or Arnibal, and Tapioca pearls or Sago pearls. In most Filipino neighborhoods, it is common to hear a loud shouting in the morning saying “Tahooooo!”. These are those vendors trying to attract customers and letting them know of their presence. You’ll see children waiting in front of their houses for the “Magtataho” carrying their own cups. Yes, it is possible to have this in your personal cup and the Vendor will just charge you for the amount of Taho you got. It is normally consumed using a spoon, straw or drank in the cup itself. Taho is very light and soothing for it is served warm.

Taho Preparation and Tips

The most difficult part of making this one is probably making the soft Tofu from scratch. When you get your Soy Beans from the market, you need to soak the beans overnight, wash, sort out the bad beans from the good ones, and remove the membrane which covers every bean which is done by hand. What you need to get is the Soymilk from the Soybeans which is pretty similar to making Tofu cubes. The first step is grinding the prepared Soybeans in a blender. Once you get a good blend, sift the soymilk out by using cheesecloth. Run the soymilk over the cheesecloth again to get smoother milk. Once you get the soymilk out, boil it in a pot for 5 to 10 minutes and add in the gulaman or agar to make the Soy milk curd.

If you don’t want to make your soft tofu from scratch, you can always use a soft tofu mix from the store. It is easier to prepare and saves a lot of time. When the soft tofu is ready, it is time to assemble the Taho with Arnibal and Sago. When Vendors serve this, the first thing they always do is remove the excess water forming at the top of the Soft Tofu curd. After that, they scoop small amounts of Soft Tofu until the cup is full and then top it up with sago. To add the sweet flavor, the arnibal is added in while mixing in the process.

During a cold rainy day or December night, a perfect hot chocolate is always there to comfort and warm you up. In the Philippines, Tablea Tsokolate, or simply Tablea, translate to “Chocolate Tablets” and they are exactly what they are. The Tablea Tsokolate Recipe are made from Cacao beans that are dried, roasted and ground to form tablets afterward. They are like unsweetened Chocolate tablets, not for eating but for making Hot Chocolates. Compared to powdered hot chocolate, you won’t imagine having a hot chocolate experience with such richness in flavor.

The fact that Tablea is made directly from ground Cacao Beans makes the hot chocolate more flavorful. The secret is in the fat content. Unlike powdered hot chocolate, some of the chocolate components like the cacao butter are lost in the process. In making Tablea, there are no losses since it doesn’t go through a lot of processes like Powdered Chocolate does.

Tablea Tsokolate Recipe Tips and Preparation

Tablea Tsokolate is traditionally prepared using a Mexican whisk called molinillo or batirol. The mixing method is very different compared to beating eggs with a wire whisk. Instead, the batirol is held in between the palms and rolled like when you wash your hands. The batirol is used with a narrow metal pitcher. Using this makes it easier to mix the hot chocolate with the batirol and it helps keep its temperature. The final result is a hot chocolate with body and a bit of foam from the method of mixing. If you grew up with your mother or grandmother making you hot chocolate using batirol, then you had a very lucky childhood.

The Tablea Tsokolate Recipe may come in tablets or balls, ready to be popped in boiling water or milk. When preparing the Hot Chocolate, around 2-3 tablets are dropped in 1 cup of boiling water however, you can always adjust the proportion of tablea to water on how strong you prefer your hot chocolate. To the thick mixture, you can add sugar and milk for creaminess and richness. If you don’t have a batirol, it is fine to use any wooden spoon or spatula available. The delightful flavor will still be there.

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The Panara Recipe is a food that can be an appetizer and it can also be perfectly matched with your dish, at first I don’t even heard nor taste Panara so I get curious and ask my grandmother to teach me how to cook it then suddenly when I’ve tasted it OMG! The taste was great and I even take a bite more and more until there’s nothing left on the plate. I told my Grandmother to cook that every weekend because I definitely will look for the taste of the Panara day by day.

Every time I am writing the articles about Foods and saw something new I just wanted to try and explore to make my articles in reality and this Panara is one of my favorite. The taste is so good and I will definitely serve it with my friends and family because this dish is just easy to cook and when it comes to the texture you will not believe that after you bite it you feel that you are floating in heaven, not too excited but this is how I totally feel when I eat Panara.

Panara Recipe Tips

I highly recommend this to all mothers out there to serve this Panara Recipe for all occasion and for sure you will have a great feedback about this dish because it is uncommonly served on the table, that’s why for sure they will ask for the ingredients and preparation for cooking this.

Preparing Panara is easy it’s like you’re  doing Shanghai Rolls but in a different way because in Shanghai you are rolling it to make it seal but in Panara you just fold it and press at the edge to make it secure when cooking. When it comes to the ingredients, I love it when I put more ground shrimp because that makes the Panara Recipe more even tastier.

If you’d like to see another approach to this Panara recipe, check out this video we found on YouTube: (Note this is not our video, this video is made by the “Pinoy Hapagkainan” YouTube channel.

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Have you ever tried being a part of a Filipino New Year’s celebration where you see a delicious banquet with white discs served in one corner? These are called “Palitaw” derived from the word “Litaw” meaning “to float” or “to surface”. This Palitaw Recipe, commonly served in New Year’s since it is believed to help the luck to “float up” or show up. This belief came from how Palitaw is cooked in boiling water and floats up when ready. After the sticky rice discs emerge, they are coated with sugar or other flavorings.

Mothers always make the children shape the Palitaw from Glutinous Rice (Malagkit) when preparing the New Year’s Eve banquet.

Similar to how kids love cotton candies made from portable cotton candy machines, kids also like these kinds of work and would even help their mother lose a bit of cooking load. After shaping, the Palitaw is laid out on banana leaves, not plates, to prevent them from sticking. Sometimes, instead of flattening out the glutinous rice flour dough, they are kept as balls and added to “Ginataan”, a sweet coconut milk-based dessert.

Palitaw Recipe Preparation Tips

Making Palitaw is very simple. The main ingredients of Palitaw are Glutinous Rice Flour and Water. The amount of water should just be right to form a pliable dough that is not too dry or not too runny.

Adding more glutinous rice flour or water can adjust the consistency of the dough. Shaping the dough is easy since you will be working with clay-like dough. In most Filipino household, the size and shape of the palitaw do not matter.

But the standard shape is a flattened ball not bigger than the size of the palm. Once the Palitaw is shaped, they can be cooked in boiling water. They are ready after they start floating and look almost translucent.

The cooked Palitaw is really sticky when taken out of the water. Some people like to serve the palitaw on the plate as they are, but this makes them tend to stick together or on the plate. To prevent this, sugar, toasted sesame seeds, or toasted coconut neat shreds are used to coat the palitaw. These also give them a variation of flavor along with the chewy texture.

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Every country has versions of Puto Recipe (Rice Cakes), and the Philippines is not behind when it comes to it. The Filipino Version of Puto requires the cakes to be steamed to come out very fluffy but not dry and very delicious. It is made from rice flour, and stories say that some ferment the puto to bring out more flavors. The modern version, however, does not require fermenting and is straightforward and very easy.

Puto Recipe and Variations

The most common version of Puto Recipe is the one shaped like Cupcakes with a log of Cheese on top. Puto comes in a variety of flavors and colors. The most popular ones are the Cheese Flavored Puto and the Salted Egg-Topped Puto. During special occasions in the Philippines, one might see some Puto without the Cheese on top and what’s left is the groove from it. It is hilarious in a way since the children, who are not very fond of eating too much, take the cheese but not eat the Puto itself. Another variation is the savory puto with slivers of salted egg on top. And again, the toppings may go missing once served and left unsupervised in some households.

How to Make Puto Cheese

The Recipe may vary depending on the place but the traditional Puto Recipe uses Ground Rice and not regular Flour. It is just like making a simple cake but through steaming. The ingredients are Baking Powder, Sugar, the type of Flour preference, Milk and the flavoring like shreds of Cheese. A Steamer is needed indeed to achieve the wonderful texture of the Puto.

Best Puto Recipe

The most satisfying thing about biting into a puto probably is how it is really soft, like biting into a cake, and then it springs back a little bit. But unlike regular cakes, it does not get dry and it can be really moist for a long time. The Cheese Flavored Puto is easily a favorite of many. There are versions of Puto that are like huge Cakes and not like the cupcake servings. The huge chunks of Cheese are seen everywhere and they bring a flavor explosion once you bite into one.

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