Mabuhay!

Welcome to the first Filipino recipe of curating time! And how lucky — it’s two recipes in one!

I think my family must have made hundreds of Siopao growing up. We’d make them from scratch for our school international fairs, spending the Saturday before cooking Adobo or Asadao, then that Sunday making the buns, steaming them by the dozen. We’d hand Siopao out to students during the fair that Monday, one of my favorite parts of high school. Different families would come together, cooking dishes from their respective cultures, and sharing them with the rest of the school. I think it’s something every school should do to foster curiosity and community, but anyway…

I filled this Siopao with Chicken Adobo, the unofficial official dish of the Philippines. The dough is so simple and perfect that it’s hard to mess up! I used the bao dough recipe from The Wok of Life, a great Asian cooking blog that gets it right. 

I understand that recipes from other cultures can seem intimidating, so please, ask me any and all questions!

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Siopao

I used the dough recipe from Woks of Life, a great Asian cooking blog run by an entire family! 

Servings 10 siopao buns

Ingredients

for the dough

• 1 tsp active dry yeast
• 3/4 cup warm water
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup cornstarch
• 5 Tbsp granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder

for the filling

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 3 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 1 cup distilled white vinegar
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup water
• 8 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 bay leaves
• 1 Tbsp crushed black pepper

Instructions

• In the bowl of an electric mixer with a dough hook attachment (you can also knead by hand in a mixing bowl), dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Sift together the flour and cornstarch, and add it to the yeast mixture along with the sugar and oil. Turn on the mixer to the lowest setting and let it go until a smooth dough ball is formed (approximately 2 minutes). Cover with a warm, damp cloth and let it rest for 2 hours. 
• While the dough is resting, make the Adobo.

  Heat the olive oil in a dutch oven or similar pot over medium high heat. Add the chicken and brown in batches, removing the chicken once browned. Turn heat down to medium and sautée the garlic until golden brown. Add the chicken and its juices and the rest of the ingredients. Bring to a boil then simmer over medium-low heat for 1 1/2 hours.
• After your dough has rested for 2 hours, add the baking powder to the dough and turn the mixer on to the lowest setting. Gently knead the dough until it becomes smooth again (approximately 1 minute). Cover with a damp cloth and let it rest for another 15 minutes. In the meantime, cut parchment paper into ten 4x4 inch squares. Prepare your steamer by bringing the water to a boil.
• Roll the dough into a long tube and divide it into 10 equal pieces. You can also weigh the dough and divide it equally that way.Press each piece of dough into a disc about 5½ inches in diameter (it should be thicker in the center and thinner around the edges). Add some filling and pleat the buns until they're closed on top.

  Place each bun on a parchment paper square, and steam for 15 minutes over high heat. I steamed the buns in several batches.

An Amber Emblem of Love

When I think about food, I think of memories. There’s the smell of fresh garlic sizzling in a pan on Saturday mornings, the shells of garbanzo beans floating in water like shedded summer skins. But one that stands out in its amber emblem of love is leche flan.

Con Cuidado

When my Abuelita lived with us, she would prepare a leche flan (and yes, just one) for Christmas Eve every year. She would spend the night before carefully and tenderly whisking eggs and milk, caramelizing sugar in a pan.

When I was around eleven years old, she asked me to help her make the Christmas flan (a Filipino/Spanish caramel custard), a privilege and a memory I wish I had absorbed more completely.

She showed me how it’s imperative to not touch the sugar as it caramelizes, to pay attention to how long you whisk the eggs. “Con cuidado,” she told me, as she guided my hands in coating the pan with the caramel. I remember moving the pan faster than what she instructed, impatient with the process and being pulled away from sister and brother playing in the other room. My Abuelita was quick to scold me for my carelessness. And now, I recoil at the thought of not savoring those extra seconds patience would have given me with her. 

But despite my rushing, the flan sat on a cake stand on the Christmas dessert table, unrivaled and (quite literally on a pedestal) above the other confections. 

Coating the pan with caramel has become my favorite part of the process. And whenever I see leche flan, I always think of her – deceptively simple but luxurious and rich, a symbol of patience and cultures (my Abuelita’s parents moved from central Spain to the Philippines, and leche flan is a signature dessert of both countries). If cooked too fast or too long, the flan will turn from silk to rubber, a result of the flan’s stubbornness and defiance (two beguiling yet beautiful qualities of every Spanish woman). 

I haven’t made a flan that could hold a candle to my Abuelita’s, and I don’t ever want to. But I hope you take the time to play patience with this recipe, and I hope when you try it you can taste my Abuelita’s Spanish stubbornness, her Filipino nature to love. 

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Leche Flan

A simple yet luxurious dessert that's a holiday staple in my family and my Abuelita's favorite dessert!

Servings 1 9" flan

Ingredients

for the caramel

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 Tbsp corn syrup
• 1/2 cup water

for the custard

• 6 large eggs
• 2 1/2 cups whole milk
• 14 oz sweetened condensed milk
• 1 tsp orange zest
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/8 tsp salt

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 325°F.
• Carefully place the sugar in the center of a sauce pan. Pour the water and corn syrup over the sugar, making sure not to get sugar on the sides of the pan (see note). Cook over high heat and do not touch until the sugar starts to caramelize and turn an amber color. 
• Once it reaches a dark amber color, remove from heat and pour into a flan mold, 9" glass pie dish, or individual ceramic ramekins, carefully moving the vessel to coat the bottom and sides.
• Beat the eggs and add the milk. Stir in the condensed milk, zest, vanilla, and salt. 
• Put the flan pan in a roasting pan then add the custard.
• Add boiling water to the roasting pan to half way up the flan (see note).
• Bake at 325°F for 40 minutes, checking the doneness by jiggling the pan. If it moves like set jello and an inserted knife comes out clean, it's done!
• Let the flan cool in water bath to room temperature and refrigerate for 2 hours. After chilled, run knife around the edge and flip onto a plate!

Notes

• Cooking the flan in a water bath helps ensure the flan cooks evenly. 
• If there are holes running through the flan and it tastes rubbery, it's over-baked.
• Stirring the sugar before it caramelizes will cause the caramel to seize.
• To clean your sauce pan, soak it in hot or boiling water.