strawberry pie

japanese word of the day: ichigo! (strawberry)

pronounced itch-e-go

i originally wanted to make strawberry rhubarb pie but then i remembered that texan rhubarb is not in season in the summer like the north. CHOMP’s sister was able to grow a big bush of it in the cooler seasons. so hence the strawberry (ichigo!) pie.

hello kitty first came to mind but then me friend convinced me to do my melody since she had more red to her.

STRAWBERRY PIE

Crust:

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup Crisco shortening

bowl of ice cold water

Filling:

2 packages of strawberries (2 lbs.)

1 cup sugar

3 tablespoons cornstarch

3/4 cup orange juice (i had orange juice with mango)

wax paper

About 1 tablespoon of milk

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

In a medium mixing bowl, pour the flour in. Mix the shortening and salt with the flour by hand until it becomes crumbly. Add one tablespoon of ice cold to the mixture and mix. Keep doing this until 7-8 tablespoons have been mixed in and the dough is smooth. Try not to over mix.

On a slightly floured cutting board, cut the dough in half. Rub some flour onto the rolling pin. Roll out one of the dough into a circle big enough to cover the bottom of the pie pan. Use the rolling pin to roll up one side of the dough to the other and unravel carefully over the pie pan. If you need more dough at the edges, you can take some from the other half of dough and pat together. Set the other ball of sough aside.

Mash the strawberries and get a large saucepan out (I like to use a wok). Warm the saucepan to medium heat and pour the mashed strawberries in the saucepan with the sugar. Bring to a boil and stir frequently for about 5-10 minutes. In a small bowl, whisk together with a fork the cornstarch and orange juice. Pour it into the pan of strawberries while stirring. Reduce heat and let it simmer until thick (about 15 minutes). Stir occasionally.

While the filling is thickening you can make my melody crust! Roll out the last ball of dough like the first. Get a piece of wax paper big enough to cover the rolled out crust. Lightly trace the crust with a pencil or pen so you know exactly how big it is. Draw or trace my melody into the traced circle. Place the wax paper drawing over the crust and retrace the drawing by dotting the lines with a knife or toothpick. Once all the lines are poked through, take off the paper and the drawing should be on the crust. Use a knife to cut the lines. Carefully, peel off the parts that will have strawberry filling. Refer to the pictures to see the process.

Stir the filling one last time and pour it into the pie pan evenly. Then, cut the part of the crust that outlines the ears (the edge of the crust) into 3-4 parts so that you can place them easily on the top. Then place the face and the flower. Use the leftover dough to make a pattern at the edges or to fill any holes. Brush with some milk and cover the edges with aluminum foil so that the crust wont over brown.  Bake for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown at 425 degrees F.

i think i found my favorite pie<3

back in texas

and everything is bigger in texas so i’m trying not to gorge myself too much but its so hard when it comes to mexican food. when i finally ate at taco cabana after half a year has past, i almost cried. they truly earned their place on our christmas tree (no joke we have a christmas ornament from a kids meal we ordered and it hangs on our tree since).

while i was traveling, the many exciting dishes i CHOMPED and drooled behind a window over made me really miss a kitchen to try and cook everything i’ve experienced. but since i’ve returned home, i’ve mostly been cooking food i’ve missed overseas like filipino food! i guess experiencing other cultures made me want to dig into my own roots. one of the first i made was stir-fry noodle dish, pancit! whenever my mom makes pancit, she always makes a huge wok of it and the next thing we know it’s all gone! this was my first time making it so i had my mom help me out.

PANCIT RECIPE

use a large wok

Ingredients:

1 package of canton noodles

1 package of bihon (vermicelli) noodles

you can choose one rather than using both noodles if its to your liking. our family loves mixing the two. just be sure to use two packages of noodles.

1 cup of chicken, pork, or beef sliced in thin strips (optional. or you can use shrimp)

1/2 sliced onion

5 beads of minced garlic

1 cup of julienned carrots

1/2 cup of sliced celery

1 red or green bell pepper(optional)

2 cups of shredded cabbage (half a cabbage)

2-3 cups of chicken broth

2 Tbsp of vegetable oil

1 Tbsp soy sauce

1 Tbsp fish sauce

1 Tbsp lemon juice

open the top of the noodle packages and fill the packages with water in the sink for the noodles to soak while you cut the ingredients.

cut the celery in half length-wise then slice side-wise. cut the carrots every 2 inches and then cut into thin strips. cut the cabbage in 4, turn over slice, and slice diagonally (look at pics for reference).

once everything is prepared, warm vegetable oil in wok. brown garlic and onion. add carrots (and sliced meat if desired) and mix well.

add celery slices and mix in. then add cabbage, fish sauce, soy sauce. Stir for about 1 minute then add the drained noodles and chicken broth. Taste test for salt and pepper. add more soy sauce as you stir until it has a light brown color. continue mixing well with two utensils like tossing a salad until a bit dry. add lemon juice to taste and CHOMP!

my mom was really surprised i did so well my first time because apparently one of my aunts has trouble making this because it always comes out too soggy. we made this one vegetarian and like old times it was all gone in a flash!

okay so i had to do something cute. i’m into cute food like the amazing bentos they make in japan! so for valentine’s day i was wondering what i should whip up this time. i’ve been indulging in peanut butter since i’ve been back and i thought peanut butter cups! DOMO peanut butter cups!!! perfect.

if you check out the pics above you can see what i came out with. i bought a flex silicone pan with little squares perfect for DOMO-KUN’s shape at micheals and my imagination did the rest! i used a family friend’s amazing peanut butter cup recipe first.

Ingrediants:

1 cup of smooth peanut butter

1 cup of butter

1 3/4 cup graham craker

2 cup powdered sugar

2 cup milk chocolate chips

Add-on ingrediants for DOMO:

1 package of white chocolate

1 bar of dark chocolate

crush graham crackers in a plastic bag and mix in a bowl with butter and peanut butter. microwave 30-60 seconds and use a blender to stir. may need to do twice.

add powder sugar and blend in. set aside unless u don’t want the bottom of the peanut butter cup to have chocolate then smooth out in each square.

microwave milk chocolate for 30 seconds, stir, and repeat until melted. spread the bottom and sides of each square and drop peanut butter mixture in each square. then smooth out more milk chocolate on top and place in the fridge until it hardens enough to decorate. if chose not to have chocolate on the bottom just smooth out chocolate on top and place in fridge until it hardens.

while you wait for it to harden, separate the white chocolate bag in half into two different bowls. dark chocolate in another bowl. use the same method to melt all the bowls. in one of the white chocolate bowls add red food coloring until you’re satisfied with the color. it will also come out pasty but this makes it easier to shape the mouths.

once the squares hardened start making DOMO! dark chocolate for the eyes (if you don’t think the eyes are dark enough play with food colors to make it darker) and then do the mouths. the mouths harden pretty face so by the time your done making them you can go ahead and start making the teeth on the first one you made a mouth for. then DOMO CHOMP!

my boyfriend and friends mouth almost fell to the floor when they saw these! i had fun figuring out how i would make these and the result was worth the work!